Benjamin M. sent me a passage from Ambrose Bierce’s essay, “Election Day,” from George Barkin, ed., The Sardonic Humor of Ambrose Bierce, to go along with my earlier H.L. Mencken blog. “Despots effete upon tottering thrones Unsteadily poised upon dead men’s bones, Walk up! Walk up! The circus is free, And this wonderful spectacle you shall see: Millions of voters who mostly are fools, Demagogues, dupes and candidate’s tools. Armies of uninformed mountebanks, And braying disciples of brainless cranks. Many a week they’ve belloed like beeves, Bitterly blackguarding, lying like thieves, Libeling freely the quick and the dead And painting … Continue reading Ambrose Bierce on Election Day