The Patriot Post® · Thursday Short Cuts

Upright: “With all our division and disagreements today, there is no disagreement about the shame that the vile institution of slavery was once present and legal in America. We all agree it is a blot. We all also agree that racism is deplorable. But the reason slavery and racism are terrible things is that every human being must live with dignity and in freedom. How can we arrive to the conclusion that the remedy and antidote to slavery and racism is putting all Americans on the government plantation? Not only is it immoral, but it doesn’t work. Government is supposed to be about protecting, not confiscating, our life, liberty and property.” —Star Parker

Political futures: “The purpose of public education is to create ‘well-informed and discerning citizens.’ But ‘citizens’ is a specific word with a specific definition. According to Aristotle, a ‘good citizen’ is a person who upholds the Constitution of his particular polis. If we teach our students to be bad citizens in the Aristotelian sense — citizens who disparage the polis with lies, who engage in tribal politicking rather than civic friendship, who insist that truth be subsumed in favor of intersectional sensitivities — we will wind up as a country with no future.” —Ben Shapiro

Re: The Left: “One of the reasons we have so much illegal immigration is that many Democrat cities have declared themselves to be sanctuary cities. They are telling illegal aliens, ‘Come to America and hide here in San Francisco, Seattle or New York.’ The left is doing the same thing for anti-Americanism. It’s providing a sanctuary for it. There’s no shame among leftists in interrupting the national anthem, burning the flag or saying, ‘America is so evil that it needs to be fundamentally transformed.’ That’s what critical race theory is all about — tearing down the country so it can be ‘fundamentally transformed.’” —Gary Bauer

For the record: “The Jan 6 commission is being led by Rep. Bennie Thompson, who objected to the electoral college results in 2004, Jamie Raskin, who objected in 2016, and Adam Schiff, the biggest conspiracy theorist in the history of the U.S. Congress.” —Greg Price

Grand delusions: “To me, though there was less loss of life on January 6, January 6 was worse than 9/11 because it’s continued to rip our country apart and give permission for people to pursue autocratic means. So I think we’re in a much worse place than we’ve been. And I think, as I’ve said to you before, we’re in the most perilous point in time since 1861 in the advent of the Civil War.” —former Republican strategist Matthew Dowd

Easier said than done: “In terms of specific industries, there are cases where they need to pay their workers more and that will make them more competitive in hiring.” —White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki

Nope: “Biden needs to get behind proof of vaccination, starting with his own White House events. A gathering touting the United States’ progress toward independence from the virus should have been the ideal opportunity to make the case for vaccine requirements.” —Washington Post contributing columnist Leana S. Wen

Non sequitur: “[Illegal immigrant] families are so much a part of our communities. They’re the heart and soul of our culture, and they are the backbone of our economy.” —Oregon Governor Kate Brown

And last… “Lots of people on the Left really really really do not want you to know what is happening in your child’s school. That tells you everything you need to know.” —Matt Walsh