The Patriot Post® · Friday Short Cuts

Insight: “We are so concerned to flatter the majority that we lose sight of how very often it is necessary, in order to preserve freedom for the minority, let alone for the individual, to face that majority down.” —William F. Buckley, Jr. (1925-2008)

Upright: “The woke revolution is not a grassroots movement. It is powered by a well-connected and guilt-ridden elite. Yet the religion of wokeness assumes that these high priests deserve exemptions. Their wealth, credentials, contacts and power ensure none are ever subject to the consequences of their own sermons. … Self-righteous elites rant about carbon footprints, needless border security, defunding the police, gun control and charter schools. But they rarely forgo their private jets, third and fourth homes, estate walls, armed security guards and prep schools. Apparently, the more you rant about ‘privilege,’ the less you need to worry about your own. Wokeness is an insurance policy. The louder the damnation of American culture, the more likely a career will be saved or enhanced. … Wokeness is not really about fairness for minorities, the oppressed and the poor, past or present. It is mostly a self-confessional cult of anointed bullies, and hypocrites of all races and genders, who seek to flex, and increase, their own privilege and power. Period.” —Victor Davis Hanson

Observations: “Wokeness is sort of the product of political correctness, and I don’t even understand how people who think logically can not see through what’s being done to divide us. We can’t be destroyed by Russia or China or North Korea or Iran or anyplace. We can only be destroyed by ourselves. And there are those who know that and therefore they plant the seeds of dissension.” —former HUD Secretary Ben Carson

Political futures: “It’s really unacceptable that Biden is so obsessed with Trump reversals that he’ll literally put the American public, and these [migrant] kids, at risk the way he is. And then he gives Kamala Harris — apparently, she’s the one in charge. This is the same person who encouraged 7,000 migrants to come to America. She referred to ICE as the KKK. She’s now in charge of this. She’s been missing in action, and God help us if she ever becomes president, because if this is how she handles a crisis, I mean, I just can’t imagine how she would run our country.” —former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley

For the record: “Major League Baseball can’t become a weapon in the culture wars, a hostage for one political party or ideology. It can’t be only for the rich or the poor, nor can it only be for one race, as it was until 1947. Baseball must always stand above politics and its dark elements of corruption, greed and sordid selfishness. It can’t go wrong by standing for national greatness. The situation calls to mind the 2006 Duke lacrosse case, when many erred — like Mr. Manfred has here — by leaping to a conclusion based on assumptions rather than carefully considered facts.” —former MLB Commissioner Fay Vincent

Read my lips: “I have said it before and will say it again to remove any shred of doubt: There is no circumstance in which I will vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster. The time has come to end these political games, and to usher a new era of bipartisanship where we find common ground on the major policy debates facing our nation.” —Senator Joe Manchin

And last… “More media outrage over the Covington kid smiling or not smiling than the two teenage girls who killed a man during a carjacking.” —Erielle Davidson