increased ignorance
won’t increase capacity
for good government
For the Mencken Project.
This is not actually Mencken but Mencken quoting William Edward Hartpole Lecky who said: “Nothing in ancient alchemy was more irrational than the notion that increased ignorance in the elective body will be converted into increased capacity for good government in the representative body.“
And while ignorance will not increase capacity for good government, it sure does increase the probability of being elected.
William Edward Hartpole Lecky quoted by HL Mencken, in Notes on Democracy, 1927