The unique perspective and provocative opinions of Joe O’Neill
Quoteworthy
“These are the times that try men’s souls.”—Thomas Paine.
“My dear friend.” How Recep Erdogan, the president of NATO-member Turkey, refers to Vladimir Putin.
“The age of pop-up movements and celebrity takeovers in our politics is likely just beginning, I’m afraid. And the time for loyalty oaths–to any party–is rapidly coming to an end.”—Matt Bai,Washington Post.
“You can’t truly love this country and love the man who did everything in his power to destroy it.”—Bill Press, author of “Trump Must Go.”
“Ensuring access to higher education for students from different backgrounds is one of the most powerful tools we have to prepare graduates to lead an increasingly diverse nation and make real our country’s promise of opportunity for all.”—Attorney GeneralMerrick Garland.
“If music be the food of love, play on.”—William Shakespeare.
“Royalty and the political elite can stay in power until their deaths. … We need an age-limit constitutional amendment.”—Gary Franks, former Connecticut GOP congressman and podcast host of “We Speak Frankly.”
“Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root.”—President Ronald Reagan.
“In a republic, legitimacy is derived from popular consent. But the only oath officials take is to the Constitution, not the people who elected them (or to their bosses).”—Jonah Goldberg, The Dispatch.
“The most horrific element of slavery in the American South: the ‘chattel principle,’ the legal definition of human beings as property.”—Williams College American History Professor Emeritus Charles B. Dew.
“You’ve heard me say a million times that I’m not a Washington Democrat.”—West Virginia Sen.Joe Manchin.
“If you want the rainbow, you must take the rain.”—The late New York Democratic Congressman Emanuel Celler.
“This is a despicable act beyond politics.”—Los Angeles Mayor Karren Bass, in reference to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sending immigrant families to L.A., which was part of a Hurricane Hilary-caused (Southern California) state of emergency.
“By today’s social standards, which forbid any suggestion of the ‘N-word,’ the right has supplanted the epithet with what it now derides as ‘wokeness.’”—Anthony Conwright,Mother Jones.
“As owners increasingly turn to electric vehicles, gas tax collections will face continuing downward pressure and, in so doing, reduce the state’s primary funding stream for transportation.”—Florida Revenue Estimating Conference
“The current combination of three at-large and four single-member districts benefits all county voters. Each voter currently has four commissioners representing them. Switching to all single-member districts means each voter has only one commissioner representing them.”—Teresa Potter, president of the League of Women Voters of Hillsborough and Pasco counties.
“Our literacy rates are so low. … Our focus is to educate you. Nobody wants to brainwash your children.”—Hillsborough County School Board chairperson Nadia Combs.