February 19, 2025

You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.

James Thurber (1894–1961), American writer and cartoonist, The Portable Curmudgeon, Jon Winokur, ed. (New York: 1987), p.221

Whom have you fooled since you became an elected official? On what score have you fooled everybody? What fact about yourself would most impress your constituents? Shock them? Make them laugh at you?

Politicians are in a tight spot. They are supposed to represent their constituents—members of the public with a range of opinions, each of which is to some degree at odds with the others. As it is impossible to be the same person to all people, the politician must be, as the actor Lon Chaney was nicknamed—“the man of a thousand faces”! If you want to know what any politician really feels, watch how he votes—at which point he can become a man of a thousand excuses.