A repost from Dianne Rogers:
Ninety-six years ago, H.L. Mencken, a prominent newspaperman and political commentator wrote on what he determined to be the difficulties of good men reaching national political office. This was published on July 26, 1920 in the Baltimore Sun paper:
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.
Truer words were never spoken!
Pretty much.
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