| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
H. L. Mencken Knew Obama Was Inevitable
Monty Pelerin / EconomicNoise.com
The results of the presidential election still seem unreal to me. How and why a failed president and presidency was given a “do-over” is beyond my comprehension. Yes, I know about makers and takers and how taking care of the takers is supposed to ensure victory. But are there no limits to who can be elected under such a strategy? Will we someday see Hannibal Lecter or his equivalent judged suitable because he will promise enough money to gain office?
There really was no positive achievement or outcome that President Obama could run on. Courtesy of White House Dossier, Charles C. W. Cooke captured the essence of the winner’s campaign in one simple and profound paragraph:
A president of the United States just ran a reelection campaign based on the promise of government largess, exploitation of class division, the demonization of success, the glorification of identity politics, and the presumption that women are a helpless interest group; and he did so while steadfastly refusing to acknowledge the looming — potentially fatal — crisis that the country faces. And it worked.
H. L. Mencken warned us long ago. Some of his more colorful quotes certainly ring true in light of recent events:
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 hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. [Did he know the mistake would be re-elected? Undoubtedly.]
Democracy is a form of worship. It is the worship of jackals by jackasses.
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
A national political campaign is better than the best circus ever heard of, with a mass baptism and a couple of hangings thrown in.
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.
Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.
If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner.
Most people want security in this world, not liberty.
No one in this world has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.
What men value in this world is not rights but privileges.
The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.
The only good bureaucrat is one with a pistol at his head. Put it in his hand and it’s good-by to the Bill of Rights.
The New Deal began, like the Salvation Army, by promising to save humanity. It ended, again like the Salvation Army, by running flop-houses and disturbing the peace.
There was no limit to Mencken’s animosity toward government, politicians and the notion that democracy was a good thing. There also is not limit to the number of quotes by him that could be appended to the above list. However, one must stop somewhere. I believe the reader has grasped the point.
http://www.economicnoise.com/2012/11/13/h-l-mencken-knew-obama-was-inevitable/
The ‘makers and takers’ argument is a LIE being perpetrated by the GOP. RINOmney was a liberal no better than Obama. I am a life-long republican and I didn’t vote for him. I COULDN’T vote for him. He was another RINO like McCain and Dole. They’ll blame demographics but it was the candidate. I know MANY Ron Paul people and disenfranchised republicans who don’t/can’t/won’t support the party anymore. Our unwillingness to vote for a fake conservative is not the crime. The GOP ignoring the people, breaking the rules and forcing that clown down our throats IS. 4 more years of Obama? Blame the GOP. Their leadership is 100% responsible.
Yes it is: if not for the 49% who mop the nation’s floors, wipe excrement from nursing home patients, staff our fast food restaurants, work at our convenience stores, etc., and keep the nation moving, we would have no nation. The 49% are those folk who are the glue that keeps thr nation running. How is wealth created without the millions of people who manufacture, repair, assemble and sell the products in this consumer economy?
The country that Ronald Reagan was the puppet president of does not exist any more the percentage of racist white males (overt and covert alike) is much less than heretofore demonstrated; thus the inexorable grip on the reins of power has been wrested away. The ascendance of the Black –Hispanic- Asian- Gay- Multi/racial-Young – union- single Women and White liberal coalition has come to the fore and its grip on the power/control mechanisms of political dominance will not subside for generations and generations to come. Welcome to your new incontrovertible reality- Accept your substantiated descent!
You right wing, evangelical, republicans, have the unmitigated gall to decry illegal immigrants. When your ancestors came here illegally and committed genocide on the legal inhabitants. You scream belief in Jesus, yet you monger war world wide seeking to kill, mutilate and disfigure brown women and children with bombs from unmanned drones. (The irony is that you love to sanction the killing foreign brown people yet you get none of the spoils of war) The fact of the matter is Jesus was non violent and never killed or condoned the killing of anyone.
You purport to believe in conservatism and fiscal responsibility yet you were silent on the trillions given to the banker’s world wide. Not to mention farm subsidies and off shore tax havens for the rich. You say nothing on the billions spent to kill brown people and take control of their resources. In addition the 5 poorest starts in America are all red states, receiving billions in federal aid:
Alabama
Louisiana
Arkansas
West Virginia
Mississippi
I’m a liberal that believes in liberty (for all you liberal haters I’m going to give a definition of liberty): 1. freedom from arbitrary or despotic government or control.
2. freedom from external or foreign rule; independence.
I’m not on welfare, food stamps or Medicaid, I have a great professional job –career and I’m highly educated past the graduate level. However you delude yourself with intelligence and insight as you vote for people that despise your lack of education and low income level because you are gullible and easily manipulated; the 5 least educated states in America are all red:
West Virginia
Arkansas
Mississippi
Kentucky
Louisiana
Wake up accept reality, educate yourself, don’t be so easily deceived and controlled: liberty is not so bad after all.
BIN is a shill for the right wing ko koo”s– all of the hatred spewed about OBAMA before the election had no effect and you still try the same tactics and expect different results (insanity). Didn’t work before wont work now!