Trego's Mountain Ear

Will Rogers was a Cherokee comedian who died in 1935.  Known for his political comments, I wondered how pertinent, how relevant those observations would be today, almost 90 years after his death.  As I looked at the quotations, I decided two things: Will Rogers observations remain valid and politics has a tendency to run downhill.

“There are men running governments who shouldn’t be allowed to play with matches.”

“Democrats are the only reason to vote for Republicans.”

“The short memories of the American voters is what keeps our politicians in office.”

“The taxpayers are sending congressmen on expensive trips abroad. It might be worth it except they keep coming back.”

“We always want the best man to win an election. Unfortunately, he never runs.”

“The more you read and observe about this Politics thing, the more you’ve got to admit that each party is worse than the other.”

“America has the best politicians money can buy.”

“With Congress, every time they make a joke it’s a law, and every time they make a law it’s a joke.”

“Lobbyists have more offices in Washington than the President. You see, the President only tells Congress what they should do. Lobbyists tell’em what they will do.”

“The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.”

“Invest in inflation. It is the only thing going up.”

“Anything important is never left to the vote of the people. We only get to vote on some man; we never get to vote on what he is to do.”

“There’s a simple solution to our traffic problems. We’ll have business build the roads, and government build the cars.”

“A Republican moves slowly. They are what we call conservatives. A conservative is a man who has plenty of money and doesn’t see any reason why he shouldn’t always have plenty of money. A Democrat is a fellow who never had any, but doesn’t see any reason why he shouldn’t have some.”

“The 1928 Republican Convention opened with a prayer. If the Lord can see His way clear to bless the Republican Party the way it’s been carrying on, then the rest of us ought to get it without even asking.”

“It would drive a person crazy to dope out really what does divide the two parties. Prosperity don’t divide the two parties, for under either administration the poor get poorer and the rich get richer.”

“You could transfer Congress over to run Standard Oil or General Motors, and they would have both things bankrupt in two years.”

“It costs ten times more to govern us than it used to, and we are not governed one-tenth as good.”

“There is not a man in the country that can’t make a living for himself and family. But he can’t make a living for them and his government, too, the way his government is living. What the government has got to do is live as cheap as the people.”

“There’s no way in the world you’re going to make a political party respectable unless you keep it out of office.”

“There ought to be one day – just one – when there is open season on senators.”