Mencken on fearmongers in Washington

[carolinayellowdog]

Just found this quote in an article, and it's a keeper:
"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."

Karl Rove must have read this and taken it to heart.

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Think the same has been said before. But here is a quote I like:

Veer Sharma
FEAR:
F--FALSE
E--EVIDENCE
A--APPEARING
R--REAL

[Goblinmonger]

2. I don't think I appreciate Mencken

talking about me.

[TayTay]

3. This one by Mencken is pretty good too!

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.

HL Mencken, Baltimore Sun, 1920