OPINION

The 20 Best Quotes of 2015

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

20) “The shrill little twerps shrieking ‘You can't say that!’ are a far bigger problem than the stuff they object to.” -- Mark Steyn

19) “The biggest thing leaders don’t do now is listen. They no longer hear the voices of common people. Or they imitate what they think it is and it sounds backward and embarrassing. In this age we will see political leaders, and institutions, rock, shatter and fall due to that deafness.” -- Peggy Noonan

18) “President Obama is a wartime president who doesn't seem to realize it.” -- Tom Cotton

17) “Republican leaders believe the goal of the Republican Party is to gain and maintain power; conservatives believe the goal of the Republican Party is to represent conservative interests, no matter what comes. The Republican Party has become an excellent vehicle for the former goal, and a smoking garbage heap when it comes to the latter.” -- Ben Shapiro

16) “Many Americans who say that we should learn from other people, especially Europeans, mean that we should imitate what they did. That may make those who talk this way feel superior to other Americans. But let us never forget that the most disastrous ideologies of the 20th century -- Communism, Fascism and Nazism -- all originated in Europe. So did both World Wars.” -- Thomas Sowell

15) “Modern journalism is all about deciding which facts the public shouldn't know because they might reflect badly on Democrats.” -- Jim Treacher

14) “If angry political rhetoric bred violence, America would look something like Syria - awash in genocidal conflict. For sheer viciousness the robust debates between politicians and activists often pale in comparison to the "flame wars" on Twitter and Facebook, where arguments quickly become deeply personal. America's political culture is thoughtful in parts, but it's also a shouting culture, and anyone who's looking for angry or extremist rhetoric can find it. It's everywhere.” -- David French

13) “This is why, for example, I basically disengage from anyone who uses the phrase ‘white privilege’ or the term ‘patriarchy’. There is a possible world in which these might be useful terms of discussion, but if that were ever our universe it has long since ceased to be. Now what they mean is ‘I am about to attempt to bully you into submission using kafkatraps and your own sense of decency as a club.’” -- Eric Raymond

12) “The left is always dabbling in fictional dystopias where there is a yawning chasm between rich and poor, where the country is riven by racial conflict, and where the whole nation has to be impoverished to serve the power and vanity of the Capitol—and yet somehow this is the system they always create when they’re in power, in places like Baltimore and Chicago.” -- Robert Tracinski

11) “Conservatives say ‘you can be somebody.’ Liberals say ‘you should hate somebody.’ The latter mentality is exactly what we've seen play out in Ferguson and Baltimore.” -- Carl Jackson

10) “Years ago Marvin Olasky wrote how compassion traditionally meant to ‘suffer with.’ Over the years it turned into writing a check. Now it means making other people write checks.” -- Doug Bandow

9) “Am I morally obligated to defend the president every time somebody says something bad or controversial about him? I don't think so! ...If someone made a nasty or controversial statement about me to the president, do you really think he would come to my rescue? No chance!” – Donald Trump

8) “There’s a revealing tendency in most liberal and left-wing histories of the United States of America. When something bad happens, there tend to be only two possible villains: conservatives or America itself (or a combination of the two). During the McCarthy period, evil conservatives whipped up paranoia and fear. But the Red Scare of 1919, overseen by Woodrow Wilson’s progressive attorney general, A. Mitchell Palmer, was a blot on America’s soul. When FDR interned Japanese-Americans, it was an example of America’s sins. When FDR’s party ruthlessly enforced Jim Crow in this country, racism was a stain on America. After the Democrats lost the South, and the South in turn became less racist, the stain was moved to the Republican Party. Liberalism is never to blame.” -- Jonah Goldberg

7) “How did all these illegal aliens get into ‘the shadows’ in the first place? They weren’t kidnapped and dragged across the border. They came here. At most — and this is dubious — it’s a crisis for the illegal immigrants. But ‘living in the shadows’ is evidently better than living in Guadalajara, otherwise, there’s an easy solution. Living in the shadows doesn’t seem to be much of a crisis even for them.” -- Ann Coulter

6) “The gentlemen who wrote the Constitution did not get around to enfranchising women or abolishing slavery, but they snuck in a constitutional right to gay marriage that we’ve somehow overlooked for 228 years or so: No mentally functional adult, regardless of his views on gay marriage, should be expected to pretend that that is true.” -- Kevin Williamson

5) “Taken literally, Islamophobia means ‘fear of Islam.’ OK, well, there are many Muslims who have gone to great lengths to convince us to fear it. So what if I finally oblige them?” -- Matt Walsh

4) “The questions asked in this debate illustrate why the American people don’t trust the media. This is not a cage match. And you look at the questions—Donald Trump, are you a comic book villain? Ben Carson, can you do math? John Kasich, will you insult two people over here? Marco Rubio, why don’t you resign? Jeb Bush, why have your numbers fallen? How about talking about the substantive issues? And Carl, I’m not finished yet. The contrast with the Democratic debate, where every thought and question from the media was, which of you is more handsome and why?” – Ted Cruz had the best moment in any debate so far when he slammed the moderators

3) “Deciding who is eligible to complain about microaggressions is itself an act by which the majority imposes its will, and it is felt as alienating by the minorities who are effectively told that they don't have the same right to ask for decent treatment as other groups.” -- Megan McArdle

2) “If gun free zones save lives, why doesn’t Obama just declare Iraq, Syria & Afghanistan one big gun free zone?” — Wayne LaPierre

1) “We are not a nation of immigrants. We are a nation of citizens.” – Mark Levin