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.
The American foreign policy trauma of the sixties and seventies was caused by applying valid principles to unsuitable conditions.
NGOs have a complicated space in neoliberal politics. They are supposed to mop up the anger. Even when they are doing good work, they are supposed to maintain the status quo. They are the missionaries of the corporate world.
I am making a collection of the things my opponents have found me to be and, when this election is over, I am going to open a museum and put them on display.
Social democrats are characteristically modest - a political quality whose virtues are overestimated. We need to apologise a little less for our shortcomings and speak more assertively of achievements. That these were always incomplete should not trouble us.
Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt.
Occupying armies have responsibilities, not rights. Their primary responsibility is to withdraw as quickly and expeditiously as possible, in a manner determined by the occupied population.
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