Respect Must Be Earned

Here's a letter sent yesterday to WTOP, a DC news-radio station:

This morning's caller who reports that her "heart is broken" by Tea Partiers' "disrespect for Washington" reminds me of one of H.L. Mencken's many trenchant, useful, and eternal insights.  After describing government accurately as a "great pox of civilization," Mencken observed that "The fact that it [government:] is generally respected – that it possesses effective machinery for propagating and safeguarding that respect – is the...