Voting is simply a way of determining which side is the stronger without putting it to the test of fighting.
Interpretation
Voting serves as a peaceful method to determine power dynamics without resorting to conflict.
In this quote, H. L. Mencken suggests that voting represents a civilized, non-violent approach to resolving differences and deciding leadership. It highlights the importance of political processes in providing a mechanism for people to express their preferences and reach decisions collectively, rather than through force or conflict.
In practice
During a political debate, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of voting as a solution to political disputes.
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.
I have against me the bourgeois, the military and the diplomats, and for me, only the people who take the Metro.
If you look at satellite photographs of the Far East by night, you'll see a large splotch curiously lacking in light. This area of darkness is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Freedom of conscience, of education, of speech, of assembly are among the very fundamentals of democracy and all of them would be nullified should freedom of the press ever be successfully challenged.
What we have ignored is what citizens can do and the importance of real involvement of the people involved - versus just having somebody in Washington make a rule.
If the United States loses the economic weapons of control, it is very much weakened.
A good constitution is infinitely better than the best despot.
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