It seems to be a persistent failing
that politicians listen to the loudest voices
rather than the wisest ones.
— Dave Nalle, RLC National Chairman
Tag Archives: politicians
The Squeaky Wheel…May Be Foolish <— Dave Nalle
The Flip-Flopping Moderate <– Mencken
It is moral by his code to get into office by false pretences. It is moral to change convictions overnight. Anything is moral that furthers the main concern of his soul, which is to keep a place at the public trough.
Ostensibly he is an altruist devoted whole-heartedly to the service of his fellow-men, and so abjectly public-spirited that his private interest is nothing to him. Actually, he is a sturdy rogue whose principal, and often sole aim in life is to butter his parsnips.
His technical equipment consistes simply of an armamentarium of deceits.
It is his business to get and hold his job at all costs. If he can hold it by lying he will hold it by lying. if lying peters out he will try and hold it by embracing new truths.
His ear is ever close to the ground.
— H. L. Mencken on elected politicians, Notes on Democracy (1926)
The Early Bird Gets…Tired
Early to bed and early to rise is a bad rule for anyone who wishes to become acquainted with our most prominent and influential people.
— George Ade, True Bills (1904)
Politicians SHOULD Be Afraid <- Barnhill
There is a recent push to censor political speech like the above picture, ban guns, et cetera, to "protect politicians"...but crazed maniacs aside, their fear is healthy for liberty
Where the people fear the government you have tyranny.
Where the government fears the people you have liberty.
— John Basil Barnhill, Indictment of Socialism (#3), transcript of Barnhill-Tichenor Debate on Socialism (1914)
JEFFERSON NEVER SAID THIS. That’s right. We’re eventually going to come out with a list of false attributions we’ve discovered while trying to source them for our own use.
Shoot a Senator
Our constitution protects aliens, drunks, and U. S. Senators. There ought to be one day (just one) when there is open season on senators.
— Will Rogers, Autobiography
It’s Still Lying
Even if what you say is technically true, if you knowingly leave a false impression, you are a liar
Veracity does not consist in saying, but in the intention of communicating truth.
— Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographia Literaria
Politicians: Useless for Prosperity
Roaming the world as a foreign correspondent for more than a decade, I was able to observe how a variety of vastly different nations organized themselves economically.
The inescapable conclusion was that no politician anywhere on the planet has ever actually created a rupee’s worth of prosperity.
— Louis Rukeyser, “Louis Rukeyser’s Wall Street” newsletter, Nov 96
Words of the Sentient 
