Granted, society and politics run in cycles. The Strauss-Howe Generational Theory is one attempt at defining these cycles. So is the old saw that goes, "Tough times make tough people; tough people make good times; good times make weak people; weak people make tough times."

But, back to Mencken. He wasn't an optimist. But when you read his work, you wonder if he didn't have some kind of premonition as to what's going on in the United States today. Back then, in the Roaring Twenties, Mencken made this observation:

The ideal government of all reflective men, from Aristotle onward, is one which lets the individual alone – one which barely escapes being no government at all.

Good government is that which delivers the citizen from being done out of his life and property too arbitrarily and violently – one that relieves him sufficiently from the barbaric business of guarding them to enable him to engage in gentler, more dignified, and more agreeable undertakings.

In other words, the only legitimate role of government is to protect the citizens' liberty and property.

By those standards, we are a long way from good government - or even acceptable government. As I've often written, before the Depression, the only contact most Americans had with the federal government, unless they were in the armed services, was when they went to the post office. Now, the federal government seems to have its fingers in everything we do: it taxes us, regulates us, restricts us, tells us what we may and may not do with our own property, and more.

But here's my favorite Mencken quote:

The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naive and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair.

The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself … Almost inevitably, he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable.

All government … is against liberty.

I believe in only one thing: liberty; but I do not believe in liberty enough to want to force it upon anyone.

Now, that first sentence, I think Mencken failed to see the rising of the new American left, the "progressive" attempts at government. Oh, there was a movement called "progressive" in Mencken's day, but if anyone who had proposed, in 1925, allowing men to play on women's sports teams, throwing open the borders to all and sundry, or insisting that we return to a pre-industrial lifestyle to avoid having the entire planet warm up by a degree or two, then the proposer would find themselves being chased around by guys in white suits weilding big nets. The "progressive" left are radicals by any measure, and they hate America.

But Mencken was right in one thing: All government is against liberty. And when the government goes too far, that's when the right can be radicalized. We're seeing that now. The rise of Donald Trump, the new face of American populism, is part of that radicalization; the right, or at least the majority of the right, is throwing off the shackles of the old establishment - or at least, we're trying to. And, we are doing it out of love for country - very unlike the left.

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All government is against liberty. Some governments, of course, are wont to move harder against liberty than others; as far as the United States has fallen on the freedom scale, we’re still a long way from North Korea. But the arc of government always bends in that direction.

Despite my recent optimism with Donald Trump's re-election, I’m not sanguine about the future of the American republic. Why? Because I’ve read a lot of history. It is in the nature of government to grow always larger and more intrusive. And, as Mencken points out, all government is against liberty. It’s a ratchet, not a dial, and thus only moves one way. I’m not saying that a return to a traditional American liberty-based government is impossible, but I wouldn’t bet on it happening. What’s surprising these days is that it all seems to be happening so quickly. Remember, only five years ago, the COVID-19 panic? Back then, actions by government – mass lockdowns, mask and vaccine mandates - were well and truly out of control, and most Americans just seemed to meekly accept them. And then, during the recently-concluded Biden administration, things just seemed to be spinning out of control.

Maybe, given honest elections, we could hold the bad things at bay a little longer. But we can’t rely on honest elections anymore, either. Meanwhile, we can look back on Mencken’s work, realize once again how prescient he was, and wait for the next shoe to drop.