Jan 8, 2026

H.L. Mencken on demagogues

The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots…  His public life is an endless series of evasions and false pretences.  He is willing to embrace any issue, however idiotic, that will get him votes, and he is willing to sacrifice any principle, however sound, that will lose them for him…  He may be, on the one hand, a cross-roads idler striving to get into the State Legislature… or he may be, on the other, the President of the United States. 

~ H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)

H.L. Mencken on Reclaiming Democracy ... 

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