Mencken

[Plane]

"Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods." -H.L. Mencken

Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.
H. L. Mencken

I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.
H. L. Mencken

[Xavier_Onassis]

Mencken was stuffed fuller of complaints than a Christmas turkey, but he had no solutions.

He was the National Fussbudget for around 30 years.

[Plane]

  I see him as a Humorist.

I like Will Rogers too...
Will Rogers quote: "Stupidity got us into this – why can't it get us out?"

[Xavier_Onassis]

Will Rogers was funny. Mencken was mostly ironic. Rogers was rather like Mark Twain and the Simpsons. He did not really offend anyone much.

I thought he was great when I was in high school, but now he just seems like a mean old codger with no solutions.

[Plane]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Rogers

Solutions are a lot to ask of a humorist.

Did you know that Will Rogers ran a mock presidential campaign,...

Presidential campaign, 1928
 
Rogers thought all campaigning was bunk. To prove the point he mounted a mock campaign in 1928 for the presidency. His only vehicle was the pages of Life, a weekly humor magazine. Rogers ran as the "bunkless candidate" of the Anti-Bunk Party. His only campaign promise was that, if elected, he would resign. Every week, from Memorial Day through Election Day, Rogers caricatured the farcical humors of grave campaign politics. On election day he declared victory and resigned.
 

Asked what issues would motivate voters? Prohibition: "What's on your hip is bound to be on your mind" (July 26).
 Asked if there should be presidential debates? Yes: "Joint debate--in any joint you name" (August 9).
 
How about appeals to the common man? Easy: "You can't make any commoner appeal than I can" (August 16).
 
What does the farmer need? Obvious: "He needs a punch in the jaw if he believes that either of the parties cares a damn about him after the election" (August 23).
 
Can voters be fooled? Darn tootin': "Of all the bunk handed out during a campaign the biggest one of all is to try and compliment the knowledge of the voter" (September 21).
 
What about a candidate's image? Ballyhoo: "I hope there is some sane people who will appreciate dignity and not showmanship in their choice for the presidency" (October 5).
 What of ugly campaign rumors? Don't worry: "The things they whisper aren't as bad as what they say out loud" (October 12).[22]

[Xavier_Onassis]

I don't think that Mencken considered himself a humorist. I don't think anyone did. He had his own magazine, The American Mercury (Mercury/Hermes was the god of business) which became a violently rightwing McCarthyist rag by the 1950's, and then vanished. Funny it was not.

Rogers was indeed a humorist. He started out as a cowboy act in which he did rope tricks. Then he combined his rope tricks with a running dialogue. Rogers was part Cherokee. His family was part of the Cherokee leadership, and after Rogers, any Americans who claimed Indian blood tended to claim they were related to some Cherokee princess.

His son became a US Representative rfor one term, from CA.