[x]

Mencken isn't a writer for every mood or for every time of life. I came across him in school and he was the one writer who made me feel that Wilson or Coolidge or Harding or FDR were once controversial and living people. In contrast to the textbooks and speeches, he really made the past come alive.

And reading Mencken in the Carter years, his cynicism seemed about right. Mencken captured some features of American politics, culture and life that are as relevant now as they were eighty years ago.

If you come to Mencken older and have more life experience, your experience may be different. If you read his works expecting a deep thinker, you'll probably be disappointed.

Mencken fits well with times of public cynicism. When people really believe the political system is working or that the work of politicians is important, they have little time for Mencken.

In his own lifetime Mencken was popular in the 1920s, when the country more or less ran itself. In the Depression years, when people feared political collapse there was little demand for his cynicism.

[Past Your Eyes]

That's a pretty good explanation, x. I think you've hit the nail right on the head.
I'm what you might call "later in life" but I really don't think I'll spend a whole lot of time exploring the man any further. When people who (apparently) think the sun rose and set on the man jump to full put-down mode whenever somebody criticizes him, that tells me something right there.