The Patriot Post® · Friday Short Cuts

Insight: “I think that every true reformer, every real friend of liberty, will agree with me in saying that if we must erect safeguards, they should be rather for the security of the individual than of the mass, and that our chiefest care must be to train the majority to respect the rights of the minority, to prevent the claims of the few from being trampled under foot by the caprice or passion of the many.” —Sir Richard John Cartwright (1835-1912)

Political futures: “If the Right gives up the gender fight, then that’s it. It’s over. Once we’ve surrendered reality itself, what else is there to fight for? Tax cuts? I will die on this hill. If this hill is lost, there are none worth keeping after it and nobody left to fight for them anyway.” —Matt Walsh

Upright: “The late historian Will Durant had the definitive statement about what happens to nations that ignore traditions and policies which have worked in the past: ‘A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within.’ An even higher authority preached: ‘For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear.’ (2 Timothy 4:3 NLT).” —Cal Thomas

For the record: “Racism, America’s original sin, continues to plague America from making true progress as a united nation, free of racial division and bias. Just as one group appears to be making significant progress, another finds itself moving backward. The cause of this, I believe, is that many have a distorted version of racism. That is, rather than viewing racism as judging others by the color of their skin, racism has been modified to be about power dynamics; the powerful class is the only class that can be racist and less powerful classes cannot. … Race does not exist in any discernible way outside of the power we give it. At the most basic biological level, race has no significance in the actions of men, and yet we continue to use race to divide men into groups, a misguided practice that has had severe consequences since our great country’s inception.” —Armstrong Williams

Re: The Left: “Redefining language is nothing new for the left. When they can’t win public opinion with the truth, they change the meanings of words to trick the public into their way of thinking. Examples abound. Bill Clinton famously called taxes ‘contributions’ and talked about how the government needed more of them from you. But if you actually treated them like contributions and decided that they were voluntary, armed IRS agents would knock on your door and put a lien on your home. And when it comes to abortion, there’s no such thing as a baby growing inside her mother’s womb anymore; it’s now called a ‘product of conception.’ That’s the left’s way of pretending that abortion isn’t the destruction of human life. … And what about when a politician tells you that they’re cutting spending? In typical Washington-speak, spending cuts aren’t actually cuts in spending but cuts to increases in spending. So they’re still spending more money than they did before — just not as much as they wanted. … The American Jobs Plan is being used as a Trojan horse to hide an agenda that would cost American families, chase jobs out of the country, add trillions to the debt, and concentrate more power with the federal government.” —Kay C. James

Grand delusions: “I’m not a deficit spender.” —Joe Biden

Lack of self-awareness: “We are witnessing a surge in anti-Asian hate crimes in our country. I condemn anti-Asian hate and stand with our AAPI community members.” —Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler (“Between 2019–21, there have been two mob beatings of Asian Americans in your city. Both were committed by antifa. You remained silent both times.” —Andy Ngô)

And last… “Imagine what would have happened in this country without brave Republican governors. We’d probably still all be locked down. Thank god for federalism. It allows us to have 50 state laboratories & to see big state govs like DeSantis in Florida & Abbott in Texas were correct.” —Clay Travis