H.L. Mencken is often regarded as one of the most influential American writers of the early 20th century. Here are some of his timeless quotes on politics, democracy, government and elections.
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The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
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Government is a broker in pillage, and every election is a sort of advance auction in stolen goods.
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Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.
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Democracy, too, is a religion. It is the worship of jackals by jackasses.
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Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.
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Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.
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Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
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If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner.
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As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
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All government, of course, is against liberty.
The (theoretical) hope is that the masses are at least competent enough for us to end up with the least idiotic of the bunch winding up in office.
If we are to live in a society built upon rules and systems built to at least make things as fair and rational a possible, then fraud (violation of those rules) cannot be permitted.
I prefer better education, or changing the system to lessen the ability for the most extreme idiots to negatively influence the system.
Or at least, voters BELIEVE that they have a choice and influence elections... even if the reality is that these are more or less selections than elections.
It's certainly possible that people have been brainwashed into voting certain ways. Perhaps not legal violations but still ethical and moral violations.
Such is the most massive flaw of democratic society... which is why I, like Adams, argue that the least amount of democracy is the best for a Republic. With less players involved, there is at least a better hope that the best will rise to the top, unaffected (or less affected) by manipulation.