“Out of the muck of their swinishness the typical American law-maker emerges.  He is a man who has lied and dissembled, and a man who has crawled.  He knows the taste of boot polish.  He has suffered kicks in the tonneau of his pantaloons.  He has taken orders from his superiors in knavery and has wooed and flattered his inferiors in sense.  His public life is an endless series of evasions and false pretenses.  He is willing to embrace any issue, however idiotic, that will get him votes, and he is willing to sacrifice any principle, however sound, that will lose them for him.  I do not describe the democratic politician at his inordinate worst; I describe him as he is encountered in the full sunshine of normalcy . . . . It is almost an axion that no man may make a career in politics in the Republic without stooping to such ignobility: it is as necessary as a loud voice . . . . They are men who, at some time or other, have compromised with their honor, either by swallowing their convictions or by whooping for what they believe to be untrue.  They are in the position of the chorus girl who, in order to get her humble job, has had to admit the manager to her person.”
- H.L. Mencken, Notes on Democracy