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<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><font
size=3 color="#7c0a89" face="Arial Black"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
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color:#7C0A89;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-font-kerning:0pt'>Doug wrote --</span></font><font
color="#7c0a89" face="Arial Black"><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial Black";mso-bidi-font-family:"Courier New";color:#7C0A89;
mso-color-alt:windowtext;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-font-kerning:0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><font
size=2 color="#7c0a89" face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New";color:#7C0A89;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-font-kerning:
0pt'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]></span></font><font size=2
color="#7c0a89" face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New";color:#7C0A89;mso-color-alt:windowtext;letter-spacing:0pt;
mso-font-kerning:0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><font
size=2 color="#7c0a89" face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New";color:#7C0A89;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-font-kerning:
0pt'>Of course he wasn't a thinker - he was a journalist! And I'm well </span></font><font
size=2 color="#7c0a89" face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New";color:#7C0A89;mso-color-alt:windowtext;letter-spacing:
0pt;mso-font-kerning:0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><font
size=2 color="#7c0a89" face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New";color:#7C0A89;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-font-kerning:
0pt'>aware of his numerous hateful shortcomings. But like I said, he was a </span></font><font
size=2 color="#7c0a89" face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New";color:#7C0A89;mso-color-alt:windowtext;letter-spacing:
0pt;mso-font-kerning:0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><font
size=2 color="#7c0a89" face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New";color:#7C0A89;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-font-kerning:
0pt'>great polemicist and funny as hell. Why oh why must the left (which </span></font><font
size=2 color="#7c0a89" face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New";color:#7C0A89;mso-color-alt:windowtext;letter-spacing:
0pt;mso-font-kerning:0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><font
size=2 color="#7c0a89" face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New";color:#7C0A89;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-font-kerning:
0pt'>of course doesn't exist in the Coxian orthodoxy) ceaselessly invoke </span></font><font
size=2 color="#7c0a89" face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New";color:#7C0A89;mso-color-alt:windowtext;letter-spacing:
0pt;mso-font-kerning:0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#7c0a89" face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#7C0A89;letter-spacing:
0pt;mso-font-kerning:0pt'>all the familiar pieties?</span></font><span
class=EmailStyle15><font color="#7c0a89" face="Arial Black"><span
style='font-family:"Arial Black"'><o:p></o:p></span></font></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal><span class=EmailStyle15><font size=3 color="#7c0a89"
face="Arial Black"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial Black"'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></font></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal><span class=EmailStyle15><font size=3 color="#7c0a89"
face="Arial Black"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial Black"'>I
agree with this sentiment. I guess in Mencken&#8217;s case, I was responding to a
couple of things &#8211;<o:p></o:p></span></font></span></p>

<ul style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in' type=disc>
 <li class=MsoNormal style='color:#7C0A89;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;tab-stops:
     list .5in'><span class=EmailStyle15><font size=3 color="#7c0a89"
     face="Arial Black"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial Black"'>The
     fact that Mencken had a certain importance, as a cultural critic, on the
     development of the liberal intellectual strata in the twenties which were
     a component of the New Deal liberalism that came along in response to the
     depression. My parents, for example, who were very standard New Deal
     Democrats, were also Mencken fans. This is a bit of an irony. Actually Mencken&#8217;s
     popularity faded after 1929.<o:p></o:p></span></font></span></li>
 <li class=MsoNormal style='color:#7C0A89;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;tab-stops:
     list .5in'><span class=EmailStyle15><font size=3 color="#7c0a89"
     face="Arial Black"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial Black"'>This
     fact is worth keeping in mind in assessing the general social rôle of
     intellectuals in the US. Not to make moral judgments about it, but still,
     this is an important question for the left. It also surprised me to
     discover his laissez-fairism (more than the racism and anti-Semitism,
     which were more common then) and the zaniness of the thinking that went
     into them.<o:p></o:p></span></font></span></li>
</ul>

<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><span
class=EmailStyle15><font size=3 color="#7c0a89" face="Arial Black"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial Black"'>Certainly, you are right
that <span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;</span>&#8220;</span></font></span><font
size=2 color="#7c0a89" face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New";color:#7C0A89;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-font-kerning:
0pt'>he was a </span></font><font size=2 color="#7c0a89" face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#7C0A89;mso-color-alt:
windowtext;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-font-kerning:0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#7c0a89" face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#7C0A89;letter-spacing:
0pt;mso-font-kerning:0pt'>great polemicist and funny as hell</span></font><font
color="#7c0a89" face="Arial Black"><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial Black";mso-bidi-font-family:"Courier New";color:#7C0A89;
letter-spacing:0pt;mso-font-kerning:0pt'>&#8221;, and that he was a great English
stylist. Actually, I keep some copies of his articles on the Scopes trial and on
the death of William Jennings Bryan to give to the social work students I
supervise as examples of how to write brief expository pieces, such as we have
to write.</span></font><font color="#7c0a89" face="Arial Black"><span
style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial Black";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Courier New";color:#7C0A89;mso-color-alt:windowtext;letter-spacing:0pt;
mso-font-kerning:0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color="#7c0a89" face="Arial Black"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial Black";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Courier New";color:#7C0A89;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-font-kerning:
0pt'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]></span></font><font
color="#7c0a89" face="Arial Black"><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial Black";mso-bidi-font-family:"Courier New";color:#7C0A89;
mso-color-alt:windowtext;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-font-kerning:0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color="#7c0a89" face="Arial Black"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial Black";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Courier New";color:#7C0A89;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-font-kerning:
0pt'>This does bring up one of Mencken&#8217;s real, though implicit and unintended, progressive
qualities &#8211; that he helped form a body of opinion opposed to the South and to evangelicalism/fundamentalism,
and that he never gave way to populist sentimentalism about the alleged wisdom
of &#8220;the people.&#8221;</span></font><span class=EmailStyle15><font color="#7c0a89"
face="Arial Black"><span style='font-family:"Arial Black"'><o:p></o:p></span></font></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal><span class=EmailStyle15><font size=3 color="#7c0a89"
face="Arial Black"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial Black"'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></font></span></p>

<p class=MsoAutoSig><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span><span 
style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;</span>AUTOTEXTLIST \s &quot;E-mail 
Signature&quot; <span style='mso-element:field-separator'></span><![endif]--><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'>Christopher Rhoades D˙kema<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=MsoNormal><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></p>

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