Baltimore's H.L. Mencken may have been the most quotable of newspaper reporters. Some comments are crass and insensitive. Others dug deep into the heart of darkness. Here's one:
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.
You
may know Mencken by his Broadway/Hollywood persona -- E.K. Hornbeck, the cranky
cynical reporter in "Inherit the Wind." Here he is blasting attorney
Henry Drummond (a.k.a. Clarence Darrow) who is representing the defendant in
the Scopes Monkey Trial. Hornbeck is the devil sitting on Drummond's
world-weary shoulders. Here's how Hornbeck sees it:
Looks like you're going out in a blaze of glory counselor. You were pretty impressive for a while there today, Henry. "Your Honor, after a while you'll be setting man against man, creed against creed" etc, etc, ad nauseam unquote. AHH, Henry! why don't you wake up? Darwin was Wrong! Man's still an ape. His creed still a totem pole. When he first achieved the upright position he took a look at the stars... thought they were something to eat. When he couldn't reach them, he thought they were groceries belonging to a bigger creature... that's how Jehovah was born.
I would love to hear Mencken on Trump
& Co. And Hunter S. Thompson, the Sage of Woody Creek, Colo., where are you when we need you?
I guess it's just us. Just little ol' us.