"Nobody ever went broke," Henry Mencken supposedly said, "underestimating the intelligence of the American people."

It's not certain he ever did say it. But nothing seems quite as apt for the weeks just before an election. The political hucksters have been counting on it for decades, and they're not going broke.

As usual, the last weeks' political ads on television, in the papers and in the mailers are laced with scare stuff – the ads to ban gay marriage, say – and no end of lies and pretense. That applies especially to the slate mailers purporting to be from some established organization – the cops, environmentalists, Democrats – that are nothing but commercial operations selling "endorsements," marked by tiny asterisks, to anyone willing to pay for them.

Even the anti-immigration crowd is running newspaper ads in California with a photo of wind farms, telling readers that if the country doesn't reduce immigration, any attempt to attain energy independence and environmental protection will be "just blowing in the wind." As if those same people wouldn't consume just as much energy and dump just as much gunk in the air if they lived somewhere else. If they stayed in Mexico or China, they'd pollute more.

But maybe the most telling illustration is the battle over Proposition 11, the initiative that would take control of the decennial reapportionment process from the Legislature and give it to a supposedly independent commission. That change, based on the belief that if politicians didn't draw their own district lines the Legislature would be less partisan, has been a favorite of good-government reformers and editorialists for decades.

One mailer – this one from the proponents – is headlined, "Had Enough of Sacramento Gridlock?" Without the gridlock, it implies, everything would be great. In a big box labeled "California State Legislature Report Card," the politicians get grades of "F" for their failure to "reduce the cost of gas," "reform health care" and "solve our water problems." (For some strange reason, they only get a D-minus in balancing the budget). And it says nothing about failing to cure cancer.

This mailer carries the blessings of the California League of Women Voters, California Common Cause and AARP, respected groups usually devoted to political straight talk and accountability. Maybe they really believe that the mere threat of Proposition 11 has already driven gas prices down.

Meanwhile the opponents, led by outgoing Sen. Don Perata and the Democratic Party, bought a place on a commercial slate mailer addressed to Republicans calling for votes against "the phony reform" that will "give liberal Democrats lifetime control" of Congress.

That's a double doozy, first because Proposition 11 has zero bearing on Congress, and second, of course, because it's Perata's Democrats pretending to be Republicans. If that verges on the Orwellian, it's no more so than their pol-bashing voter guide argument signed by, among others, UCLA law professor Daniel Lowenstein, once chair of the Fair Political Practices Commission.

"Faced with real problems – budget deficits, rising gas prices and a shaky economy," it begins, "what do the politicians bring us? Prop. 11 – another nonsensical scheme to change how we draw lines between one district and another. What are they thinking?" Ergo: The way to defend the power of politicians to draw their own district lines is to attack their sneaky plot to take it away from themselves.

You have to feel for the opponents. They're being outspent by about 10-1. Most of their money comes from a few public employee unions and from the Democratic Party. But as punching bags in almost any campaign, politicians have no substitute.

None of this should be read as particular tenderness for politicians or hostility to Proposition 11 which, despite its convoluted mechanics (described in some 5,500 well-chosen words and a diagram that looks like a schematic of an oil refinery) may be a marginal improvement over the present system.

But in the process of "debating" it, both the good-government crowd and the pols are piling yet more impossible expectations on the Legislature and fueling still more distrust toward those trying to make it work.

The latest survey by the Public Policy Institute of California indicates that most Californians still aren't sure about redistricting reform: 52 percent of likely voters say that handing control of redistricting to an independent commission would bring legislators who would "more effectively" represent their districts. But only 41 percent said they favored the measure, with 25 percent not sure.

Wonky political process changes rarely connect with voters, which is why they have to be sold as cure-alls. The best reason for supporting Proposition 11 is to get it out of the way so the reformers can finally focus on more important issues.

In the meantime voters will hate their government just a bit more.