On July 26, 1920, H.L. Mencken said this: “As democracy is perfected, the office of the president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. One 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 occupied by a downright fool and a complete narcissistic moron.”
105 years later, America has that person in the White House. The only question of great importance is now this: in his remaining 3 1/2 years in office, how much more DAMAGE can D.J. Trump do to America, what’s left of American ‘democracy,” American norms, American decency, America’s economy, America’s reputation, American law, American education, the First Amendment, American national debt, American small businesses, America’s National Parks, American civil rights, America’s natural environment, the very concept of truth………………….
Luckily for Mencken, “The Evening Baltimore Sun” newspaper existed in a time when a president with a thin skin, a colossal ego, desire for “revenge”. on any and all who make him look bad [regardless whether it was true] was not in office.
One wonders what commentators like Mark Twain, the Muckrakers, and Will Rogers would say about Donald Trump. And, of course, one wonders how long it would be before Trump threatened them with the power and wealth of “our” federal government; how long before he sued the writer and their newspaper; how long before Trump threatened to cancel their citizenship; how long before Trump said they were “old,” “fat,” “ugly,” “stupid,” “a knucklehead.”
One wonders what specious, bogus, questionable, or outright falsehood would be the ‘grounds” for suing Mencken, Twain, Muckrakers, or Rogers. Would it be “a threat to national security,” “a threat to the president’s “vision,” “antisemitism,” “a need for efficiency and to eliminate waste and fraud,” “displaying dangerous D.E.I. tendencies,” that it violates “common sense” [hang on to your wallets when ANY Republican or R-W spokesperson uses this term!], that it “presented disturbing material like to offend good Americans,” that it “presented material likely to make some good Americans self-conscious,” that it “presented material making good Americans feel guilty” [anything suggesting slavery wasn’t fun], that it is “a hoax,” that it was “old news,” that “it was guilty of being ‘liberal bias’ [claiming 2 plus 2 equals 4], that ‘it was divisive” [saying the North won the Civil War], that it was “a feminist falsehood” [saying no woman had been president!], “we need a tax cut” [standard GOP operating principle; one state Republican claimed the cure for COVID-19 was a tax cut!!!], saying that despite Trump’s denials, he did know the person in question [as illustrated by 6 pictures, pre-A.I., of the two together], whatever else the Heritage Foundation or “Project 2025” authors can DREAM UP…………….
*** “The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy, ghat is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” [ John Kenneth Galbraith ]
Note: the inspiration for using Mencken’s 1920 quote comes from a 7/29/25 “letter-to-the-editor to the Minnesota Star Tribune by Chris Simonson.
With Justice For All 