Watching the current presidential race, I am reminded of H.
L. Mencken’s quote: “Democracy is the
theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good
and hard.” And his other quote:
“No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American
people.”
The Republican race at this point appears to come down to
Donald Trump, a demagogue who appears to have no fixed policy positions at all,
and Ted Cruz, a far right wingnut who appears now to be trying to be
Trump-lite. That something like 40% of
Republicans polled currently support Trump shakes my confidence in the intelligence
of the human race.
On the Democratic side we have Hillary Clinton who, if she
were not a Washington insider and therefore immune from the justice that we
mere mortals face, would already be indicted for her security violations, and
perhaps as well for the Clinton Foundation corruption while she was Secretary
of State. And Bernie Sanders, a
socialist with that thoroughly unrealistic grasp of economics and human
behavior that most socialists seem to have. Though I do have to say that Bernie
is at least personally likeable, which is far more than I can say for the other
three.
And from among these four thoroughly flawed candidates we are
to pick our next president? If this is the best the current political system
can offer up, then the system is broken far worse than I thought.
I am reminded that throughout history revolutions, however laudable
their initial objectives have been, have seldom improved things, and have quite
often made things much worse. This election is turning into a voter revolution
against the ineptness, arrogance, and special privileges of the Washington ruling
elite – all sound reasons to be upset and angry. But like most revolutions, once we have
beheaded the rulers we are likely to find ourselves in the hands of leaders even
more inept and even more arrogant than their predecessors.
Posts
