06 Mar 1998

Politics

“[T]hey are beating their brains out against one of the foundation rocks of our national character iteself. Which is the premise that politics and polticial office are not and never have been the method and means by which we can govern ouselves in peace and dignity and honor and security, but instead are our national refuge for our incompetents who have failed at every other occupation by means of which they might make a living for themselves and their families; and whom as a result we would have to feed and clothe and shelter out of our own private purses and means. The surest way to be elected to office in America is to have fathered seven or eight children and then lost your arm or leg in a sawmill accident: both of which – the reckless optimism which begot seven or eight children with nothing to feed them but a sawmill, and the incredible ineptitude which would put an arm or a leg in range of a moving saw – should already have damned you from any form of public trust.”

William Faulker | The Mansion