Each party steals so many articles of faith from the other, and the candidates spend so much time making each other's speeches, that by the time election day is past there is nothing much to do save turn the sitting rascals out and let a new gang in.
Interpretation
Political parties often borrow ideas from each other, leading to a lack of real choice for voters.
H. L. Mencken's quote reflects the cynical view that political parties become indistinguishable from one another as they adopt each other's ideas and rhetoric. By the time election day arrives, voters find themselves in a cycle of merely swapping one group of politicians for another without any significant change in policies or direction, leading to a sense of disillusionment regarding the democratic process.
In practice
During a political debate, one might mention this quote to illustrate the similar positions of competing candidates.
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.
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.
Don't get mad. Don't get even. Just get elected, then get even.
The American foreign policy trauma of the sixties and seventies was caused by applying valid principles to unsuitable conditions.
I started my political life in the Resistance. It was there that I had my first responsibility.
We are in a period when old questions are settled and the new are not yet brought forward. Extreme party action, if continued in such a time, would ruin the party. Moderation is its only chance. The party out of power gains by all partisan conduct of those in power
To get your name well enough known that you can run for a public office, some people do it by being great lawyers or philanthropists or business people or work their way up the political ladder. I happened to become known from a different route.
After installing friendly leaders in Iran and Guatemala, the United States lost interest in promoting democracy in either country.
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