“Quote Unquote”
February 2, 2018 § 2 Comments
“They will all promise every man, woman, and child in the country whatever he, she, or it wants. They’ll all be roving the land looking for chances to make the rich poor, to remedy the irremediable, to succor the unsuccorable, to unscramble the unscrambleable, to dephlogisticate the undephlogisticable. They will all be curing warts by saying words over them, and paying off the national debt with money no one will have to earn. When one of them demonstrates that twice two is five, another will prove that it is six, six and a half, ten, twenty, etc. In brief, they will divest themselves of their character as sensible , candid, and truthful men, and become simply candidates for office, bent only on collaring votes. They will all know by then, even supposing that some of them don’t know it now, that votes are collared under democracy, not by talking sense, but by talking nonsense, and they will apply themselves to the job with a hearty yo-heave-ho. Most of them, before the uproar is over, will actually convince themselves. The winner will be whoever promises the most with the least probability of delivering anything.” — H.L. Mencken
“I always voted at my party’s call,
And I never thought of thinking for myself at all.” — W. S. Gilbert, H. M. S. Pinafore
“We’d all like t’vote fer th’best man, but he’s never a candidate.” — Kin Hubbard
Tagged: H.L. Mencken, Kin Hubbard, W.S. Gilbert
The Better Chancery Practice Blog 
You sure are a damn cynic, judge. But what kind of Mississippi lawyer reads H.L. Mencken?
H.L. Mencken was proud to be a cynic. I, on the other hand, am not generally cynical at all; in fact, I think I’m often too willing to ascribe good faith to people’s motive. BUT when it comes to politicians and their craft, it’s almost impossible not to be a cynic. Who reads Mencken? Naive people like I need a dose every now and then.