The Patriot Post® · Monday Short Cuts

Insight: “Public servants say, always with the best of intentions, ‘What greater service we could render if only we had a little more money and a little more power.’ But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector.” —Ronald Reagan

For the record: “Today we are no longer living in a free society. Instead, we are ruled by those who try to enforce their extreme views by shaming and ruining those who think differently. It is not far-fetched to compare the methods of this ‘woke movement’ to those of Chairman Mao’s Red Guards, who terrorised the Chinese people half a century ago.” —London School of Economics emeritus professor John Gray

Upright: “I don’t understand how insulting another group helps our cause. … We can’t allow black people to be prejudiced also. Especially if we’re asking for white folks to respect us, give us economic opportunity, and things like that. … I don’t understand how you beat hatred with more hatred. … I want allies. I don’t want to alienate anybody. And to take shots at the Jewish race, the white race — I just don’t like it because it’s not right."—Charles Barkley

Demo-gogues: "Vote like your life depends on it. ‘Cause it does. Pick any issue you care about. I guarantee, it is on the line in this election…” —Senator Elizabeth Warren with advice — for Republicans!

Non sequitur: “Why is it again that I can pay a parking ticket online, apply for a passport and conduct personal financial transactions but I can’t vote the same way?” —Andrew Yang (“Because the future of the republic doesn’t hang on the integrity of the parking ticket payment process.” —Allie Beth Stuckey)

Braying jackass: “If you vote for Donald Trump, you are a racist. You have no wiggle room.” —The Atlantic’s Jemele Hill

Alpha jackass: “I hope people realize that there are many white Republican voters in this country if they’re given a choice between renting a room in their house to a person of color or burning down the house, they will elect to burn down the entire neighborhood. It’s not just a small fringe.” —New York Times contributing op-ed writer Wajahat Ali

Non compos mentis: “If you don’t like our leadership here, why don’t you go down to Georgia and see how that feels?” —New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, whose state has accumulated 15,000 COVID-19 deaths compared to Georgia’s 3,000

And last… “The family that owns The New York Times reportedly owned slaves. So by the [Times’s] standards, shouldn’t we tear down their headquarters since it’s a monument to systemic oppression?” —Charlie Kirk