On July 26, 1920, the acerbic and cranky scribe wrote in The Baltimore Sun: “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.”
Mencken was complaning about how to difficult it was for a good man to win the president’s seat when one had to run their campaign remotely:
The larger the mob, the harder the test. In small areas, before small electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even the mob with him by force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second and third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre man who can most easily adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.
The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. 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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Comments 3
Like the Chinese say: “A fish rots from the head down.” Shame on us for not voting the government out a long time ago.
Posted 26 Sep 2007 at 5:48 pm ¶Dan, H.L.M. had it correct. Just caught the great GWB talking about an educational push for the “childrens” and in the very first sentence he made a basic error in subject-verb agreement. I bet most of “the childrens” he was trying to “help” could have gotten that one right! P.S. Come back to the farm, Dan. Your muscle needed there! Jess
Posted 29 Sep 2007 at 10:13 pm ¶fyi
Posted 12 Oct 2007 at 6:10 pm ¶Post a Comment