The legislature, like the executive, has ceased to be even the creature of the people: it is the creature of pressure groups, and most of them, it must be manifest, are of dubious wisdom and even more dubious honesty. Laws are no longer made by a rational process of public discussion; they are made by a process of blackmail and intimidation, and they are executed in the same manner. The typical lawmaker of today is a man wholly devoid of principle — a mere counter in a grotesque and knavish game. . . . If the right pressure could be applied to him he would be cheerfully in favor of chiropractic, astrology or cannibalism.
H. L. Mencken, (1880-1956) American writer and journalist, “The Library,” The American Mercury (May 1930), a book review of The Dissenting Opinions of Mr. Justice Holmes (1930).
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H. L. Mencken
