The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
Interpretation
Increasing democratic participation helps address the shortcomings of democracy.
H. L. Mencken's quote suggests that when the failings of a democratic system become apparent, rather than moving away from democratic ideals, society should enhance and expand democratic processes. By encouraging greater citizen involvement and decision-making, the weaknesses of the system can be remedied, leading to a more effective governance that truly reflects the will of the people.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech advocating for voting rights.
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently-and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himself to the idea that after all God will not help him
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.
A poet more than thirty years old is simply an overgrown child.
[It is a basic principle of a tyrant] to unarm his people of weapons, money and all means whereby they resist his power.
The great constitutional corrective in the hands of the people against usurpation of power, or corruption by their agents is the right of suffrage; and this when used with calmness and deliberation will prove strong enough.
In the midst of these pleasing ideas we should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections.
Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power. By saying that our leaders are power-drunk chimpanzees, am I in danger of wrecking the morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle East? Their morale, like so many bodies, is already shot to pieces. They are being treated, as I never was, like toys a rich kid got for Christmas.
The immigration issue is, I recognize, one that generates a lot of passion, but it does not make sense for us to want to push talent out.
To decide once every few years which members of the ruling class is to repress and crush the people through parliament-this is the real essence of bourgeois parliamentarism, not only in parliamentary- constitutional monarchies, but also in the most democratic republics.
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