P. J. O'Rourke

To mistrust science and deny the validity of scientific method is to resign your job as a human. You'd better go look for work as a plant or wild animal.

War expands government powers. The trouble is that, when the war goes away, the government powers do not.

I was never a Democrat. I went from Republican to Maoist and then back again.

The importance of local governance may not be obvious to an America accustomed to treating city and state downfalls with doses of federal comeuppance. Sometimes there's a reason for that - the Civil War. More often, all reasoning seems absent - No Child Left Behind.

The Tea Party has definitely increased political involvement, not only among Tea Party members but among people who oppose the Tea Party members. It's been a general stimulus.

I have no idea if some societies, anthropologically speaking, aren't really suited for democracy. I don't think that's true.

One of the enduring problems with certain societies in the world - and this is certainly true of a lot of places in the Middle East - is that the capacity for self-governance and self-organizing just isn't there. It has to do with history.

The beauty of democracy is that an average, random, unremarkable citizen can lead it.

In theory, taxes should be like shopping. What I buy is government services. What I pay are my taxes.

Political discourse has become so rotten that it's no longer possible to tell the stench of one presidential candidate from the stink of another.

China is trying to become America without democracy while America is trying to become France without cheese calories.

I am a student of stupidity. I am a political reporter.