Insight

“Journalism is popular, but it is popular mainly as fiction. Life is one world, and life seen in the newspapers is another.” —G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

For the Record

“It would be interesting to imagine a counterfactual history in which incoming President Donald Trump was not distracted by baseless charges of collusion advanced by high government officials and leading Democratic officeholders and given unearned credibility by a partisan press determined to bring down a hated president. Perhaps, in that alternate world, partisan feelings would not be so bitter and confidence in institutions so low as they are today. And as they continue to be, Trump’s refusals to apologize for misstatements and to admit that he lost the 2020 election resemble many vaunted media organizations’ refusals to apologize for hyping the Russia collusion hoax and for suppressing legitimate news helpful to the Trump campaign. In summary, plenty of disgraceful misconduct all around. And self-defeating misconduct at that.” —Michael Barone

“It is one of the most bitter and tragic ironies of our contemporary politics that the leadership of one of America’s two major political parties, the Republican Party, utterly despises that party’s very own voting base. The GOP elite’s scorn for its own voters has, at this point, been a long time in the making. The trend accelerated during the 2009-2011 rise of the Tea Party, a grassroots movement fueled by constitutionalism and anti-elite populism. The crustier elements of the Republican establishment ran as far away as possible from the Tea Party, and the 2012 presidential coronation of private equity plutocrat Mitt Romney effectively killed the movement. … It says nothing particularly good about the moral integrity of an individual who, for self-interested careerist purposes, seeks to lead an organization or movement while simultaneously harboring an intense disdain for the organization’s very rank-and-file. And organizations that feature such a yawning chasm between their leadership and grassroots elements typically face two options: The leadership can ameliorate the chasm by listening to or better accommodating the rank-and-file, or the organization will cease to exist. Because for the GOP, the status quo is simply unsustainable.” —Josh Hammer

“If we want a diverse and open society … one side of the cultural divide can’t be empowered to crush the economic lives of anyone who dissents. There are thousands of businesses that will bake the cake or create the website. Public-accommodation laws were meant to stop discrimination against minorities, not compel minorities to promote the political and theological positions of the majority.” —David Harsanyi

“[Viktor] Bout is a world-class bad guy, a certified killer. He supplied Al Qaeda, the Taliban, rebels in Rwanda and other terrorists around the world with plane loads of AK-47s and other military equipment that have been used to kill Americans and thousands of other people. Trading [Brittney] Griner for Bout with [Paul] Whelan left to rot in Moscow? That will surely go down as one of the worst trades in American history. … Detaining Griner for almost 300 days and sentencing her to nine years in a penal colony was an injustice that never should have happened. And I’m glad she’s flying home. But what Team Biden did to spring her was not just dumb, amateurish diplomacy, it was an act of pure leftwing, wokester politics.” —Michael Reagan

“It is always a good thing when Americans wrongfully detained come home. It is a very bad thing when the US government incentivizes more hostage-taking by releasing the top arms dealer in the world for a WNBA player who brought drugs into Russia.” —Ben Shapiro

Non Compos Mentis

“Britney Griner represents everything in this country. She’s female. She’s LGBTQ. She’s black. And she’s extraordinary. She’s excellent. She’s overcome. She’s an icon.” —CNN contributor Van Jones

“I think I would be remiss if we did not mention also the importance this plays for the LGBTQ community. … It shows the struggles and the danger that members of the LGBTQ community face around the world.” —CNN’s Don Lemon

The BIG Lies

“What happened in Georgia, despite the efforts of the Republican legislature to make it harder to vote, our people voted. People voted. Georgians voted. They said we’re not going to let these barriers stand in our way even if we have to wait in line in the rain.” —Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer

“There was [voter] suppression … that we saw … throughout the Georgia election.” —White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre

“The president … has taken action to secure our border and build a fair, orderly, and humane immigration system.” —Karine Jean-Pierre

“We’re building an economy from the bottom up and the middle out by creating more jobs than any Administration in history at this point in a presidency.” —Joe Biden

“Fiscal responsibility is very important to us in the Biden administration.” —White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain

And Last…

“Re: Sam Brinton, let’s call it what it is: a person clearly unfit for a high-level national security role was hired because the Admin prioritizes wokeness over competence.” —Senator Tom Cotton