March 24, 2009
More Mencken
Although he's been dead more than 50 years, H.L. Mencken's dyspeptic view of politics and politicians remains timeless.
"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."
“The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can't get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods.”
"The legislature, like the executive, has ceased to be even the creature of the people: it is the creature of pressure groups, and most of them, it must be manifest, are of dubious wisdom and even more dubious honesty. Laws are no longer made by a rational process of public discussion; they are made by a process of blackmail and intimidation, and they are executed in the same manner. The typical lawmaker of today is a man wholly devoid of principle—a mere counter in a grotesque and knavish game…. If the right pressure could be applied to him he would be cheerfully in favor of chiropractic, astrology or cannibalism. "
As true today as it ever was. I'd like to think that Mencken, were he still writing, would gladly adopt "feckless crapweasels" when referring to the current crop of crooks in Congress.
Posted by Mike Lief at March 24, 2009 03:40 PM
| TrackBack
Comments
I knew it. I just knew it. I knew that the term "feckless crapweasels" would find its way into this post.
Posted by: ecmarm at March 24, 2009 07:05 PM