Source: The Daily Economy
by Donald J Boudreaux
“Among the few honorable politicians, in Mencken’s view, was Grover Cleveland, who he described as ‘a good man in a bad trade.’ A bad trade, of course, attracts a disproportionately large number of bad people. I can think of a tiny handful of successful politicians today for whom Mencken would likely have the same respect he had for Cleveland. But not many. Mencken’s suspicion of politicians wasn’t superficial; it was rooted deeply in his liberalism – a natural-rights liberalism that was closely akin to that which motivated the American founders. As Mencken said: ‘Every right that anyone has today is based on the doctrine that government is a creature of limited powers, and that the men constituting it become criminals if they venture to exceed those powers.'” (08/19/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/mencken-knew-politicians-merchants-of-delusion/