There's really no point to voting. If it made any difference, it would probably be illegal.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that voting is ineffective and implies that real change is prevented by those in power.
H. L. Mencken's quote reflects a cynical view of the political system, asserting that the act of voting holds little significance in effecting real change. By claiming that if voting made a meaningful difference it would be prohibited, Mencken conveys a sense of distrust towards political processes and the existing power structures that may seek to maintain the status quo.
In practice
During a debate on the importance of civic engagement, you could use this quote to illustrate skepticism about the effectiveness of voting.
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.
If you're worried about the deficit, pay attention to the fact that it's almost all attributable to military spending and the totally dysfunctional health program.
It is urgent to prevent new U.S. aggression. The time is now for the world to say 'no' to U.S. threats of air attack against Iran, and to the very notion of a nuclear first-use 'option' by America or any other nation.
The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the goverment.
Here we are the way politics ought to be in America; the politics of happiness, the politics of purpose and the politics of joy.
Viewed as a means to the end of political freedom, economic arrangements are important because of their effect on the concentration or dispersion of power. The kind of economic organization that provides economic freedom directly, namely, competitive capitalism, also promotes political freedom because it separates economic power from political power and in this way enables the one to offset the other
I want to make a policy statement. I am unabashedly in favor of women.
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