Mencken was a little later, in the 20s, but same idea.
How is mocking the farm subsidies initiated under Harding (the 1922 Grain Futures Act) the same as bloviating (a word coined by Harding) about the Populist movement of circa 1896?
The Populists deserved to be mocked, of course, but were less deserving of ridicule than farm subsidies.