The Patriot Post® · Friday Short Cuts

Insight: “The more one considers the matter, the clearer it becomes that redistribution is in effect far less a redistribution of free income from the richer to the poorer, as we imagined, than a redistribution of power from the individual to the State.” —Bertrand de Jouvenel (1903-1987)

Upright: “No nation has ever taxed itself into prosperity.” —Rush Limbaugh

For the record: “I am in Congress today because of Rush Limbaugh.” —Mike Pence in 2001

Re: the Ruling Class: “The most elite in America are the most likely to damn the privilege of those who lack it. Perhaps this illogic squares the psychological circle of feeling guilty about things they never have any intention of giving up. If blaming those without advantages does not satisfy the unhappy liberal elite, then there is always warring against the mute dead: changing their eponymous names, destroying their statues, slandering their memories and denying their achievements. The common denominator with all these absurdities? An ungracious and neurotic elite whose judgment is bankrupt and whose privilege is paid for by those who don’t have it.” —Victor Davis Hanson

Observations: “Former President Donald Trump was not a leader. Instead, he was a collector. He did not lead the tens of millions of voters who supported him as much as he collected their votes. He allowed them to view him as a man wearing many hats, and yes, even many masks. They saw in him what they wanted to see, and he was OK with that. He was one man with many faces, and each face represented something different for each of his followers and supporters. It was not his job to root out every evil in society, or even every evil thought or prejudice against a fellow American. However, it is a president’s job to condemn those behaviors when they go against the rule of law, the Republic and the greater good of this country. Though he eventually did offer condemnation of the Capitol Hill riots, you can’t help but wonder if his words could’ve been stronger or whether if he had gone to the inauguration, just as former Vice President Mike Pence did, it would’ve sent a strong and resolute message to his most disgruntled followers. Though it’s all now in the past, which no one can change, certainly things could’ve played out differently for Trump; perhaps, in the end, he could’ve left on a high note. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the decision he made, but the country would have been much better off. I’ve written numerous columns about Trump’s heroism, his wins on policy and the economy’s unimaginable successes in these times. On that, he absolutely deserves recognition and credit. Yet, moving forward, the Republican Party cannot be a party that appeals to the most negative emotions within the body politic. The Republican Party must be the party of hope and aspiration and the party that paves the road for America’s future as it has so many times in the past.” —Armstrong Williams

The bottom line: “The reality in the Georgia runoff Senate elections is that the Democrats focused on getting out the vote, while the Republicans vented their anger and ran against the Democratic candidates rather than for something positive. Republicans have bought into the partisan politics, negative campaigning and fear mongering. Now we have internal party battles to add to the party dysfunction. … Every Democrat is not just happy about the finger pointing in the Republican tent: many of them are pulling up a chair and popping the popcorn hoping to watch the full meltdown, a Republican Party civil war. An internal party fission would give Democrats cover to move their agenda forward while both the media and the politicians are focusing on the party split sideshow.” —Jackie Gingrich Cushman

Political futures: “Executive orders are canceled as easily as they were created. Shifts in policy prove ephemeral. What is America’s policy on a border wall? On the Keystone pipeline? On Iran’s nuclear development? When the answers to such questions are a matter of presidential caprice rather than an act of Congress, they aren’t answers at all — merely holding patterns apt to change after the next election.” —Jeff Jacoby

Nope: “Over a quarter century ago in 1994, I clerked on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The number of circuit judges has remained the same since 1990, when US population was 249 million. Our population today is over 330 million. It is time to increase circuit (and district) judges.” —Rep. Ted Lieu

Grand delusions: “The Iran nuclear deal, the so-called JCPOA, was very effective in cutting off all of the pathways that Iran then had to produce fissile material for a nuclear weapon. And we know that that agreement was working. … Having pulled out of the deal, Iran then began to lift the very restraints the deal had imposed on it. And the result is that, today, Iran is far closer to having the ability to produce fissile material for a weapon on short order than it was when the deal was in force.” —Secretary of State Antony Blinken

And last… “It’s not only that the fact-checkers are objectionable but also that the idea of fact-checking is un-journalistic. There is something more insidious about fact-checks than the average hackery. … Fact-checkers circumvent debate by making pronouncements about highly disputable contentions.” —David Harsanyi