I voted today. Some of my friends and relatives will be pleased to learn this fact. I myself feel somewhat small as I allowed myself to be badgered into voting. I am only happy I didn’t have to wait in line.
I feel somewhat dirty because I take the Mencken position when it comes to voting:
The state—or, to make the matter more concrete, the government—consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they 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 advance auction sale of stolen goods.
I feel this is especially the case with this years presidential election. We have to old men running for the office. The incumbent is a NYC real estate developer. We know he’s a crook just by that fact. But since the press has never said anything about this over the years, due to I believe, he’s the one that bribed all the NY politicians. Neither side is willing to talk about the crimes they committed. The other is a lifelong congress/senate creature that is one of the most corrupt people in all of Washington, DC. He used to be known as the senator from MBNA.
According to Quote Investigator: In 1956 the press of Johns Hopkins University released an important compilation of essays by H. L. Mencken under the title “A Carnival of Buncombe” edited by Malcolm Moos. An essay called “Sham Battle” was published in the “Baltimore Evening Sun” on October 26, 1936, and it has been reprinted in this collection. Mencken presented an uncompromisingly harsh evaluation of the electoral process. Boldface has been added to excerpts.
I see that I have a tag “Biden will be replaced.” One more thing I was wrong about.