The government consists of a gang of men [who]... have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can’t get, and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time it is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is a sort of advanced auction sale of stolen goods.
H. L. Mencken “Sham Battle,” Baltimore Evening Sun, 1936
he 2020 presidential campaign will start soon. It’s probably started already. I can’t bear to look yet. I’m like a kid in a movie theater watching I Was a Teenage Werewolf with my hands over my eyes. I’m trying to get up the courage to peek through my fingers and see if the troubled teen protagonist has turned into... eek!... a Democratic presidential candidate! Except I’m not a kid anymore. I should try to face the prospect of the 2020 presidential election in an adult manner... by having a drink. We’ll be lucky if the Democrats run anyone as reasonable as a werewolf. At least a wolf-man – excuse me, wolf-person – would only become a monster of left- liberalism when the moon was full. Meanwhile, I know exactly which “Wacko Bird” the Republicans will run. Get ready for a lot of lying.
The Republicans will lie about what they’ve accomplished. It will be a straightforward lie. They’ll say they’ve accomplished something. The Democrats will have a more rich and varied set of lies to tell. These lies will be, per Mencken, in the form of worthless promises
to the electorate. How worthless? Just wait...
The Democrats will promise to remedy the worst crisis facing America today... the worst crisis in American history... the worst crisis (measured by the amount of media attention paid to it during the past month) that the world has ever faced. Democrats are shocked – shocked – to find that powerful, wealthy, famous men use power, wealth, and fame for purposes of sexual abuse and harassment.
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American Consequences | 53
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