H. L. Menken Article exerpt

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When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental — men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack, or count himself lost. His one aim is to disarm suspicion, to arouse confidence in his orthodoxy, to avoid challenge. If he is a man of convictions, of enthusiasm, or self-respect, it is cruelly hard…
“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 a mob with him by the force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second or 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 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 hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

—H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920

Yeah..... that makes me thankful that we are electing elites. The political thoughts of the common people would likely scare me.

Awesomelyglorious, can't tell if you had tongue in cheek on your statement.

However.. ... if you think W is elite, give me the common man any day. He's certainly elite in his own mind and has surrounded himself, isolated himself with people that have no touch on the rest of the world. Just saluting and confirming his glory in every action.

It is sad that the talking heads, some, think that the great unwashed can't form proper opinions for themselves. Perhaps if the mass media pablum, on both sides, were toned down at the very least, to something resembling an unbiased statement, they might be surprised. Yeah the candidates swing to the tide and get the money from the halls of the temples and then promptly screw the masses they they danced for. It's a very flawed way of electing, but what ya gonna do. I'd like to see the money taken out of elections to start. A poor man doesn't stand a chance in today's race for the power.

Get rid of the damn electoral college, it was meant for a time when travel wasn't easy and news wasn't fast.

Trust me, only a little tongue in cheek.

W is not great, but I still think that worse would happen by picking the thoughts of the common man. You have to remember that W is going to be compared to earlier presidents and the idea expressed in the quote was that they would get worse over time. Yes, I do mean that I trust my fellow man's thoughts less than W's..... a scary thought in and of itself given the man's apparent lack of thoughtful direction or perhaps spine or both.

The unwashed cannot form opinions for themselves though, people go to college to learn how policy works, the unwashed don't even have the vocabulary down much less the complex, interrelations between issues. I am not sure that an unbiased opinion can be found, the center is not unbiased, and anything other than the center can also be considered biased. A poor man does not have a chance in a modern election, however, is that entirely a bad thing? Poverty is not correlated strongly with the talents that would be desirable in leadership, these include education, innovation, intelligence, management, or good background. The real issue is whether or not the money in politics destroys the common good by causing political favoritism, especially in economic affairs.

The electoral college really isn't the largest of my concerns. I am not sure if there is evidence that shows that it reduces candidate quality.