Quote: Henry Louis Mencken
“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.”
— Henry Louis Mencken, Baltimore Evening Sun, 26 July 1920
