Looking back half a dozen years, the staff thought this item worth repeating.
‘Broken, Furious, and Infinitely Pathetic’
Mencken Could Have Written Trump’s Obituary
When William Jennings Bryan died, in 1925, H.L. Mencken wrote the most devastating obituary of an American politician you’ll ever read—and that includes Hunter S. Thompson’s farewell to Nixon. All you need to do is substitute “Trump” for “Bryan” to see how snug the fit will be when Trump takes his permanent leave.
Bryan was a vulgar and common man, a cad undiluted. He was ignorant, bigoted, self-seeking, blatant and dishonest. His career brought him in contact with the first men of his time; he preferred the company of rustic ignoramuses. It was hard to believe, watching him at Dayton, that he had traveled, that he had been received in civilized societies, that he had been a high officer of state. He seemed only a poor clod like those around him, deluded by a childish theology, full of an almost pathological hatred of all learning, all human dignity, all beauty, all fine and noble things. He was a peasant come home to the dung-pile. Imagine a gentleman, and you have imagined everything that he was not.
Bryan was the most influential progressive voice of his era. His 1896 “Cross of Gold” speech made him a political sensation at 36. He championed the income tax, direct election of senators, women’s suffrage, and the Federal Reserve idea, and he pushed for workers’ and farmers’ interests against concentrated wealth. As Wilson’s Secretary of State he resigned in 1915 rather than risk war after the Lusitania, and he promoted arbitration treaties. He was a gifted orator, and many of his causes were eventually enacted.
Mencken was an elitist curmudgeon.
Both were great men with great flaws. And there were the monkeys…
Thanks for your comment. Much appreciated because it makes the blogpost immeasurably more informative.
FDR and the WPA might not have happened without Bryan.
Just one picky thing: It’s a shame we use ‘peasant’ as a derogatory term. In many cultures their lives are superior to ours in a variety of ways. And they don’t/didn’t treat the natural environment as some kind of foe.