If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner.
Interpretation
This quote critiques politicians who exploit and deceive their constituents for personal gain.
H. L. Mencken's quote suggests that a politician will go to any extent to please the desires of their constituents, even if it means promising morally questionable actions. It highlights the idea that some political leaders prioritize their survival and advancement over ethical considerations, serving whatever appetites their supporters may have, sometimes at the expense of fundamental morality.
In practice
During a political debate, a candidate quoted Mencken to highlight the insincerity often found in political promises.
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.
The task of the media in a democracy is not to ease the path of those who govern, but to make life difficult for them by constant vigilance as to how they exercise the power they only hold in trust from the people.
It's a good thing we don't get all the government we pay for.
Since Israel is a democratic state surrounded by essentially undemocratic states which have sworn her destruction, those interested in democracy everywhere must support Israel's existence.
The U.S.'s major strength factor and weapon is its economy. If you cripple it, you cripple the military.
Don't get mad. Don't get even. Just get elected, then get even.
You will find that the State is the kind of organization which, though it does big things badly, does small things badly, too.
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