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.
The short memories of the American voters is what keeps our politicians in office.
There is no excitement anywhere in the world, short of war, to match the excitement of the American presidential campaign.
Nobody really thinks that Bush or McCain have a real answer for the challenges we face, so what they're going to try to do is make you scared of me. You know, he's not patriotic enough. He's got a funny name. You know, he doesn't look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills, you know. He's risky.
No one talks about the real ethics disaster in Washington. It's that many members of Congress will listen to any argument against a bill except for two: that it's not moral or that it's not Constitutional.
Russian Parliament today is a bunch of puppets that just fall in with the instructions from Kremlin.
Just because you are not interested in politics, does not mean that politics is not interested in you.
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