All this and worse for a century and a half. And yet we are still here. Some people think our world will survive because it has self correcting mechanisms. I hope that’s true; it’s also true of politics. These quotes are fact-checked and prove that it is possible to see the future. In any case, as it doesn’t exactly say in the Bible, “This too will pass away.” Or as poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti almost wrote in 1863, “I think we’ve been here before.”

H.L. Mencken
Especially prescient was the Sage of Baltimore, journalist H.L Mencken. A century ago he was considered cynical; today it is clear he didn’t go far enough.

“On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920

“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”
A Little Book In C Major (1916)

One More For The Road

 “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”
—First written by James Waterman Wise, Jr., reported in a 1936 issue of The Christian Century. Attributed, incorrectly, to others.