In 1938, H.L. Mencken wrote in the Chicago Tribune, “No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.” It later became more popular in its paraphrased version: Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.

One would hope that in the 80+ years since the not-so-warm-and-fuzzy Mencken made this pronounce-ment, we would have improved. At least a little. However, it appears that the party of Trump is banking not only on our not getting better, but actually getting worse. The PAC ads and the campaign ads supporting Trump all have one thing in common: they provide no information on policies that, at least in their opinion, would improve the lives of the people they’re asking to vote for them. Instead, they spend their seconds promoting fear of what they say the Democrats will do to Trump followers. Their favorite words are “radical” and “socialist.”

It’s a common tactic used by people who have nothing to offer. It’s the same one used in the early and middle of the twentieth century to keep (what were then) conservative Democrats in line. If they gave into anything that the Negro asked for, the whites would lose what they had. In Virginia in the early 1950s, a student named Barbara Johns, tired of trying to learn from second-hand books in a school that was hot in the summer, cold in the winter, and wet inside when it rained, led a walkout. They went to the Prince Edward County school superintendent and presented their grievances. The response was to close down public schools in Virginia in favor of segregation academies.

The people of Virginia were afraid to properly educate their Black citizens.

Now we have the Trump supporters, who, so far as I can tell, don’t have a clue about how to improve anything and whose only plan is to stand on the sidelines calling names, Photoshopping photographs, and amplifying Russian disinformation. The Trump supporters are afraid to present a platform that will, at least in their opinion, make the US a better place.

So far as policies are concerned, the Trump supporters are bankrupt. They have nothing.

This has been true since Trump’s first campaign. He promoted empty promises (a better healthcare plan that covers more people and costs less) and fear of the “other.” He demonized everyone who didn’t look like the people sitting in front of him and promised them his protection.

“I alone can fix it.”

In Georgia, Kemp took a page from the Trump playbook and tried to characterize Abrams’ platform as “radical” despite the fact that her healthcare plan had already been adopted by more than two-thirds of the states, including several that were Republican-controlled. Later, during his administration, he paid a consultant to develop a waiver request that looked a lot like Abrams’ plan except that it cost more and covered fewer people.

It’s not clear whether Kemp became governor of Georgia because people bought his schtick or because, as Secretary of State, he successfully suppressed the Democratic vote. It’s probably a combination of the two.

Now we’re up to Trump’s second campaign for president. Before the pandemic, we were suffering from his megalomanic approach to government.

“I’m the only one who matters.”

He starts a trade war, and we have to spend billions to bail out soybean farmers. He puts tariffs on Canadian aluminum, protects two companies, and jacks up the materials pricing for hundreds of others. He bullies the fed into dropping the interest rate three times  while we were in what he described as the “greatest economy ever.” Now, when the economy is in the tank, we have fewer weapons to fight the problem with.

And then there’s his response to the pandemic, if you can call it a response. Everything he has done or said since our citizens started dying had a single focus: how does it make him look. I’m sure some of the saner people in and around the White House tried to explain to Trump that this wasn’t about him, but about the health and economy of our country. But I’m just as sure that he was incapable of understanding that.

“I am the only one who matters.”

Consequently, we are heading toward 200,000 deaths, it has been amateur hour at the White House in dealing with the supply of critical equipment, and the people who are professionals in dealing with communicable diseases are being sidelined. In the meantime, we have Trump telling us what great job his administration is doing and European countries telling us we’re not welcome there.

Which brings us back to the original question: just how dumb are we? Are we smart enough to ask for an understandable platform from people who propose to have a second term after a disastrous first term? Are we smart enough to ask that they back up their accusations with facts? Are we going to insist that anyone who shouts, “Socialist!” learn the definition of the word?

Or, are we going to prove that Mencken is as correct now as he was in 1938?

Pray for the Republic.