The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

THE LAST DITCH

Just to get this election in perspective…

Published by Tom

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Here is H.L. Mencken speaking of politicians in general;

The one aim of all such persons is to butter their own parsnips.  They have no concept of the public good that can be differentiated from their concept of their own good.  They get into office by making all sorts of fantastic promises, few of which they ever try to keep, and they maintain themselves there by fooling the people further.  They are supported in their business by the factitious importance which goes with high public position.  The great majority of folk are far too stupid to see through a politician’s tinsel.  Because he is talked of in the newspapers all the time, and applauded when he appears in public, they mistake him for a really eminent man.  But he is seldom anything of the sort.

I really have nothing to add. Good luck, America.

h/t Cafe Hayek

4 responses to “Just to get this election in perspective…”

  1. Richard Carey Avatar
    Richard Carey

    “Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule—and both commonly succeed, and are right.”
    ― H.L. Mencken, Minority Report

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  2. Sam Duncan Avatar
    Sam Duncan

    Mencken’s always worth quoting. And I’ve always felt that describing someone as a “skilled politician” is a grave insult. Greatness at the low arts of manipulation and deception is nothing to be proud of. As PJ O’Rourke put it, nobody ever said of a situation, “Oh, it’s all political” and meant it as a compliment.
    At least Romney gained a modicum of his eminence outside politics (for which he receives nothing but abuse from his opponents). Which is some reason to believe that the Cato post is right: he’s nobody’s saviour but at least he’s unlikely to make things much worse. Not much of a choice, but still…

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  3. Moggsy Avatar
    Moggsy

    I wouldn’t say “All”, but a significant number, even the majority. I expect some who start out straight get turned or compromised by the party system and deals and back scratching and ladder climbing ambition and power also.
    But not absolutely all.

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  4. The Sanity Inspector Avatar
    The Sanity Inspector

    Also from Mencken:
    The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts. He ascribes all his failure to get on in the world, all of his congenital incapacity and damn foolishness, to the machinations of werewolves assembled in Wall Street, or some other such den of infamy. If these villains could be put down, he holds, he would at once become rich, powerful and eminent. Nine politicians out of every ten, of whatever party, live and have their being by promising to perform this putting down. In brief, they are knaves who maintain themselves by preying on the idiotic vanities and pathetic hopes of half-wits.

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Tom is a retired international lawyer. He was a partner in a City of London law firm and spent almost twenty years abroad serving clients from all over the world.

Returning to London on retirement in 2011, he was dismayed to discover how much liberty had been lost in the UK while he was away.

He’s a classical liberal (libertarian, if you must) who, like his illustrious namesake, considers that

“…government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.”

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