Insight: “While democracy must have its organizations and controls, its vital breath is individual liberty.” —Justice Charles Evans Hughes (1862-1948)

“One of the worries that I have about the way that we’re talking about race is that it either seems so big that somehow white people now have to feel guilty for everything that happened in the past. I don’t think that’s very productive. Or black people have to feel disempowered by race. I would like black kids to be completely empowered, to know that they are beautiful in their blackness, but in order to do that, I don’t have to make white kids feel bad for being white. So somehow, this is a conversation that has gone in the wrong direction.” —former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

“As someone who was born in the Soviet Union, I am disturbed, very disturbed, by the use of the Department of Justice as a political tool and its power as the police state to suppress lawful public discourse. The FBI is starting to resemble [the] old KGB with secret warrantless surveillance, wiretapping, and intimidation of citizens. … It’s interesting that during the Soviet era, the United States criticized the use of the domestic terrorism concept in the USSR as a tool to suppress free speech and political dissent.” —Congresswoman Victoria Spartz

Friendly fire/lack of self-awareness: “It’s not our job to sell your agenda for you. [Democrats] are not selling their agenda.” —CNN’s Don Lemon, who spends every night selling the Democrat agenda

Friendly fire II: “The party has gone too far to the left for this country that is still center-right and center-left. … Democrats should be asking themselves, ‘How the hell could we be losing?’” —New York Times columnist Tom Friedman

Friendly fire III: “The filibuster — and the Democratic Senators who continue to uphold it — are killing our democracy.” —Democrat Congresswoman Ilhan Omar

The BIG Lie: “While at the MLK memorial, Joe Biden claims he was ‘involved’ in the civil rights movement. That’s completely false. Biden admitted in 1987: ‘I was not an activist…I was not out marching. I was not down in Selma.’” —Republican National Committee

The BIG Lie II: “We shouldn’t even talk about the [Build Back Better] numbers because it’s all paid for.” —Joe Biden

The BIG Lie III: “Domestic terrorism from white supremacists is the most lethal terrorist threat in the homeland.” —Joe Biden

Authoritarianism: “The [vaccine] mandates are working. … ‘Freedom. I have the freedom to kill you with my COVID.’ No, I mean, come on. ‘Freedom.’” —Joe Biden

Non compos mentis I: “I’ve been [to the southern border] before, and I haven’t — I mean, I know it well. I guess I should go down. But the — but the whole point of it is: I haven’t had a whole hell of lot of time to get down. I’ve been spending time going around looking at the $900 billion worth of damage done by — by hurricanes and floods and — and weather, and traveling around the world.” —Joe Biden

Non compos mentis II: “Try teaching from home. How many people did you see out in McDonald’s parking lots with their kids in their cars because they get access to the Internet to be able to help the kids [with] school? What are we doing? This is the United States of America, damnit! What are we doing?” —Joe Biden

And last… “Never trust any person or entity who believes a man can become a woman.” —Allie Beth Stuckey