Common Sense!

[fightingquaker13]

Sometimes, I get depressed at how we seem willing to fall for idiots of both the left and right. Pat Robertson and the Religious Right telling us that "Jesus loves us, but he can't stand you", or BHO and Nany Pelosi saying "We're from the government and we're here to help" and actually meaning it. Still, I sometimes find an honest man. A cynic, who understands the world. H. L. Mencken has restored my faith in humanity before. He did it again today. Here is a quote from The Minority Report:

"The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it." From "Minority Report" (If you haven't read it, you should).

I'll post that without comment and let the board chime in. I'm curious as to the responses.
FQ13

[twyacht]

Mencken was an out there a little bit type of guy, but a realist.

"The fact is that the average man's love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary, exactly like his love of sense, justice and truth. He is not actually happy when free; he is uncomfortable, a bit alarmed, and intolerably lonely. Liberty is not a thing for the great masses of men. It is the exclusive possession of a small and disreputable minority, like knowledge, courage and honor. It takes a special sort of man to understand and enjoy liberty - and he is usually an outlaw in democratic societies."
H.L. Mencken, February 12, 1923, Baltimore Evening Sun

My favorite Mencken quote:

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On 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 adorned by a downright moron."
H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

I think Mencken sounded like David Hume, unlike John Stuart Mill, or Heinlen, or even Thomas Paine, even Orwell who invoked even a violent alternative to encroachments of liberty.

Than again:

"We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true."

 

[fightingquaker13]

Mencken was an out there a little bit type of guy, but a realist.
My favorite Mencken quote:

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On 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 adorned by a downright moron."
H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

Oh Happy day! We've seen it twice in less than ten years.
FQ13 who really hopes the people will decide to elect someone they genuinely believe is BETTER than them, not someone who is just like them. I mean, I like myself just fine. I'm reasonably smart, sometimes funny, and a loyal friend. But, if anyone suggested I should be President? I'd give them a Leroy Jethro Gibbs head slap! There's a difference between someone you want to have a beer with, and someone you want to take orders from. Hopefully, the American people will grow up and realize that before its too late.

[PegLeg45]

Oh Happy day! We've seen it twice in less than ten years.
FQ13 who really hopes the people will decide to elect someone they genuinely believe is BETTER than them, not someone who is just like them. I mean, I like myself just fine. I'm reasonably smart, sometimes funny, and a loyal friend. But, if anyone suggested I should be President? I'd give them a Leroy Jethro Gibbs head slap! There's a difference between someone you want to have a beer with, and someone you want to take orders from. Hopefully, the American people will grow up and realize that before its too late.

I understand where you're coming from, FQ, and you may be right....but, we might be better off with the type of guy who knows what it's like to have callouses on his hands from a long days work but has worked his way up into not having to have those callouses because of his intelligence and common sense....they type of guy who can keep his affairs afloat without bouncing checks all over town, the guy who has taken his kid to the ER with appendicitis at 3 AM and knows what it's like to struggle to pay the hospital bill (but gets it paid anyway).......the type of guy who would gladly shoot the SOB that raped his daughter, but decides to let the courts serve justice so he can stay and tend to his family....the type of guy who readily would slap the sh!t out of someone for insulting his wife......hell, I don't know......just seems the reason we are in such a mess is that the powers that be have lost touch with the 'common man' and think they know whats best for us.

I don't want someone who is better than me in the White House.......I want someone who has walked a mile in my shoes at some point in his life and understands me.

Of course, there's one big flaw with my thought process, and that is, as I've said before (and probably will again), we will never have the 'right' person in the White House again....because the types of folks with the right mix of sense and intelligence for the job are smart enough to not want to get mixed up in the foulness that is DC politics in the first place.


Of course, I am probably wrong...but right now I blame the Darvocet and muscle relaxers I took a few hours ago.   

[fightingquaker13]

I get where you're coming from Peg, and the last thing I want is a cult of the "Dear Leader".  Madison put it best. Democracy (the republican sort), is designed to be a filter, not a mirror. You don't elect people who are like you, you elect the people you admire. Distilled to its basics, you should treat every election as a job interview for who you hire to be your boss.  We don't want (at least most of us) to be in charge. We just want someone who knows what they're doing to take care of business. To me, electing a President is like hiring a plumber or a doctor, or an attorney. Its a dirty job. I don't want to do it, and don't know how, but I  want someone competant to do the job. I guess I'm saying that "elitism" isn't a dirty word if the "elite" are elite for the right reasons. I'd offer Washington, Jefferson and Eisenhower as examples. If I'm going to hire my boss, I would want someone I would respect enough to say "You're fired" and trust that they were probably right.
FQ13

[Sponsor]

[r_w]

That isn't elite, that is a subjct matter expert.  In this case, a LEADER.

Last time the people wanted an ordinary guy like us, we got Carter. 

[PegLeg45]

I thought this was a timely quote:

Knowledge, learning, talents are not necessarily connected with sound moral and political principles. And eminent abilities, accompanied with depravity of heart, render the possessor tenfold more dangerous in a community.~Noah Webster

[tombogan03884]

F*ck all that, I want some one who has killed men for insulting him, like Jackson  
Paintings don't show it, but he commanded the battle of New Orleans with his arm in a sling, he had surgery to remove a bullet from his shoulder , IIRC, it was put there by his ADC Thomas Hart Benton.

[twyacht]

F*ck all that, I want some one who has killed men for insulting him, like Jackson  Grin

I weep for the liberty of my country when I see at this early day of its successful experiment that corruption has been imputed to many members of the House of Representatives, and the rights of the people have been bartered for promises of office.
Andrew Jackson

If the Union is once severed, the line of separation will grow wider and wider, and the controversies which are now debated and settled in the halls of legislation will then be tried in fields of battle and determined by the sword.
Andrew Jackson

Our government is founded upon the intelligence of the people. I for one do not despair of the republic. I have great confidence in the virtue of the great majority of the people, and I cannot fear the result.
Andrew Jackson

Peace, above all things, is to be desired, but blood must sometimes be spilled to obtain it on equable and lasting terms.
Andrew Jackson

***

Good point Tom.

[tt11758]

I get where you're coming from Peg, and the last thing I want is a cult of the "Dear Leader".  Madison put it best. Democracy (the republican sort), is designed to be a filter, not a mirror. You don't elect people who are like you, you elect the people you admire. Distilled to its basics, you should treat every election as a job interview for who you hire to be your boss.  We don't want (at least most of us) to be in charge. We just want someone who knows what they're doing to take care of business. To me, electing a President is like hiring a plumber or a doctor, or an attorney. Its a dirty job. I don't want to do it, and don't know how, but I  want someone competant to do the job. I guess I'm saying that "elitism" isn't a dirty word if the "elite" are elite for the right reasons. I'd offer Washington, Jefferson and Eisenhower as examples. If I'm going to hire my boss, I would want someone I would respect enough to say "You're fired" and trust that they were probably right.
FQ13

How do you reconcile that flowery prose with the vote you cast in 08?