Anyone else see this--White House occupied by a moron...

[Longgrain]

Sorry if this has been posted here before, but I found this on Snopes.com.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/mencken.asp

Interesting at least.

[Career Prole]

1. Sounds familiar.

Could you hum a few bars? :D

[demnan]

2. H.L. Mencken wrote extensively

on the obsessive moral bs and the church. His report on the Snopes trial (the trial in Tennessee in the 20s where the teaching of evolution was banned) is a classic.

There are some things liberals need to know about Mencken as well. He was a confirmed conservative, hated FDR and wrote some very demeaning things at times, especially about black women and Jews.


Here's the link to Mencken's essays on the Snopes trial:
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/menk.htm

For background on the Snopes trial check this:
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/scopes.htm

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Scopes trial.

Snopes runs an online debunking site.

[Longgrain]

4. interesting....

But that's why I'm here at DU...To be educated about politics.

thanks for the little bit of enlightenment.

Longgrain.

[cyn2]

8. I think you meant the Scopes trial n/t

[jdj]

12. that being said, these 2 paragraphs are stunning

"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 — the 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."

from the link at snopes

[cavanaghjam]

5. Where are the cynics?

As cynic superior Mencken filled a necessary role in society. It seems that role is left to the jester today (Jon Stewart, Bill Maher). All our opinion writers, on each side, seem afraid to offend sacred cows. Mecken was the one who said, "You'll never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." And that was BEFORE television.
He also collected his favorite quotes of other people and put them in a dictionary of quotations, one of the best books I ever read, sadly now out of print.

BTW, "Here We Are Again" is my favorite CJ and the Fish album - one panned by the critics, almost always a favorable sign.

[Longgrain]

7. The cynics

seem to be here on DU.

The revolution will not be teleivized...

It will be on-line...

[bhikkhu]

9. Limbaugh passes for a cynic, in some circles. n/t

[cyn2]

6. Love it! n/t

[whistle]

10. I wonder, did H.L. Menchken have the prophetic foresight to suggest...

...what would happen to the country when that grand day of total ineptitude in its highest office was reached?

Would this country cease to be relevant any longer as the rest of the world ignored the idiot in the oval office and just by-passed the U.S.?

Or, would the U.S. having gained total mediocrity by having a representative in the highest office whose thought and judgment was no better than the mob in the streets (literally like the red-neck in the pick-up truck with the confederate flag decal or bumper sticker, but with one clear difference, instead of a rifle hanging in the back window, this idiot would have a nuclear arsenal of over 30,000 warheads capable of destroying every living thing on earth 100 times over), be such a danger to the world that all would fear both the leader and the American people so much that they would wait for the opportune time to destroy one or both?

Did Menchken also believe that democracy would be so irresponsible as to lead to such an ridiculous event as to allow an idiot to be president? I would have to disagree here because it was the failure to support democratic means and institutions that has brought us George W Bush. In fair elections by the people and allowing every vote to count, George W. Bush would never have been president in 2000 and most certainly could not have gained this win in 2004. Rigging the votes is not practicing true democracy, it is lawlessness.

[Longgrain]

11. one more moran kick

To keep this discussion up...
:kick:

Longgrain

[Gloria]

13. kick!!