{"id":36308,"date":"2021-12-14T02:21:08","date_gmt":"2021-12-13T15:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=36308"},"modified":"2021-12-14T02:21:08","modified_gmt":"2021-12-13T15:21:08","slug":"h-l-mencken-quote-on-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=36308","title":{"rendered":"H. L. Mencken Quote on Government"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"\" data-block=\"true\" data-editor=\"8nfbl\" data-offset-key=\"fp35h-0-0\">\n<div class=\"_1mf _1mj\" data-offset-key=\"fp35h-0-0\"><span data-offset-key=\"fp35h-0-0\">&#8220;.. . the government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taken one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can\u2019t get, and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time it is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"\" data-block=\"true\" data-editor=\"8nfbl\" data-offset-key=\"1mdam-0-0\">\n<div class=\"_1mf _1mj\" data-offset-key=\"1mdam-0-0\"><span data-offset-key=\"1mdam-0-0\">If that sounds a bit harsh, it is good medicine for that part of our society which is dormant and apathetic, and sorely needs sharp prodding.&#8221;<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"\" data-block=\"true\" data-editor=\"8nfbl\" data-offset-key=\"3tvcd-0-0\">\n<div class=\"_1mf _1mj\" data-offset-key=\"3tvcd-0-0\"><span data-offset-key=\"3tvcd-0-0\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"\" data-block=\"true\" data-editor=\"8nfbl\" data-offset-key=\"a34st-0-0\">\n<div class=\"_1mf _1mj\" data-offset-key=\"a34st-0-0\"><span data-offset-key=\"a34st-0-0\">H. L. Mencken<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;.. . the government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taken one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=36308\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;H. L. Mencken Quote on Government&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36309,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36308\/revisions\/36309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}