Election time with Twain: The endless cycle continues

Early voting has started. The great experiment in democracy continues apace and with prideful confidence that we can pilot the ship of state to ever better ports of call.

Perhaps we should heed the words of Nevada’s patron saint of journalism, Mark Twain, when it comes to our biennial trek to the polls.

“Grafting seems to be all over the country, and I don't think much of the reforms,” he once said. “But in this country we have one great privilege which they don't have in other countries. When a thing gets to be absolutely unbearable the people can rise up and throw it off. That's the finest asset we've got--the ballot box …”

Sounds like the Tea Party folk, doesn’t it?

On the other hand, Twain also remarked:

“All that we require of a voter is that he shall be forked, wear pantaloons instead of petticoats, and bear a more or less humorous resemblance to the reported image of God. He need not know anything whatever; he may be wholly useless and a cumberer of the earth; he may even be known to be a consummate scoundrel. No matter. While he can steer clear of the penitentiary his vote is as weighty as the vote of a president, a bishop, a college professor, a merchant prince.”

But that’s how we got the grafters in the first place. It is an endless cycle.