Their proceedings make me a happier American. Turn, now, to politics. Consider, for example, a campaign for the Presidency. I defy any one to match it elsewhere on this earth. In other lands, at worst, there are at least intelligible issues, coherent ideas, salient personalities.
Somebody says something, and somebody replies.
Here, having perfected democracy, we lift the whole combat to symbolism, to transcendentalism, to metaphysics. Here we load a pair of palpably tin cannon with blank cartridges charged with talcum power, and so let fly. Here one may howl over the show without any uneasy reminder that it is serious, and that some one may be hurt. But feeling better for the laugh. Ridi si sapis , said Martial.