"She frowned at him. "That sounds vaguely like a threat." "It's not vague and it's not a threat. It's clearly blackmail."

Next Quote

The legislature, like the executive, has ceased to be even the creature of the people: it is the creature of pressure groups, and most of them, it must be manifest, are of dubious wisdom and even more dubious honesty. Laws are no longer made by a rational process of public discussion; they are made by a process of blackmail and intimidation, and they are executed in the same manner. The typical lawmaker of today is a man wholly devoid of principle...

— H. L. Mencken