Day of the Demagogue

Hard times make for tough politics, but good times followed by not-great times create horrid politics. At the bottom, people are struggling to eat. Let things improve under a Louis XVI and expectations start rising. People notice when the good times stop and then grow surly. Raised expectations dashed are the mother of revolutions.

Ask Nicholas II.

Beware the day of crushed dreams.

The times may not be so (actually) horrid, but they feel that way and feelings matter in politics. Surly citizens look for solutions and a demagogue is there to provide the answers. Call a politician a “demagogue” and you might be doing nothing more than expressing envy for his speaking style, but demagogues do exist, crushed expectations raise them up, and they do great damage until they are stopped.

How can you spot a dangerous demagogue? First, they will appeal to the “folks” against the elite. They will despise the establishment and claim that obvious answers can be found in folk wisdom. Second, a demagogue will rely on emotion and not reason. Third, they will find an enemy to fear. Finally, a dangerous demagogue will always attack his critics and never defend his positions.

Obviously many good speakers and leaders have some of these characteristics. Elites are often corrupt and there is wisdom in the people. Great men like Abraham Lincoln came from outside the educational and cultural elites with fresh ideas and eloquence gained by hard work. A man like Lincoln, however, did not despise the elites. He learned from them. He did not inflame a class, he empowered a people.

Annoying as it can be, we rely on educated opinion all the time. Our medical doctors are generally correct about what we should do for our health. Our trained clergy avoid foolish theological errors. The engineer builds better bridges. Well read people can gain experiences from books that do not leave disabling injuries.

The School of Hard Knocks can end up knocking out many good qualities in graduates!

The demagogue plays on the truth that elites can be fatuous asses and the insecurity of the rest of us. Education does provide some benefits, but the demagogue gives us the illusion that we need not look for good, non-fatuous (!) leaders. Instead, we need learn nothing and can rely on him: The Demagogue. He will fix it and will do so using only words and concepts we can understand.

Truth is in the middle: people and elites working together. Doom is in the extremes: elites that ignore the people and a populace that despises real expertise for hucksters and easy cures. When the demagogue moves from Saturday Christian radio where he peddles easy cures, miracle diets, and wealth for all to politics, there is little danger.

Generally, we see him for what he is: an elevated pitchman for a fad cure, but when we have been ripped off by elites, when we have been ignored, and when raised expectations have been crushed, then the huckster sounds hopeful.

Hope from the demagogue is the virtue that sells the foolishness.

Never ask a follow up question of the demagogue. He has the “pitch” and he is looking for the political mark. He has learned to move on from the inquisitive, because there will be someone more credulous coming to the microphone next. He hates facts, but facts complicate any narrative. What should our tax rate be? That is a complicated question and the true leader will have thought out a “best answer.” He will be able to speak with some knowledge . . . and know the basic facts. The demagogue will only  know that if coin is silver instead of gold (!) all our problems will be solved.

Believe him and you will be saved.

The demagogue relies on belief and not faith. Faith seeks evidence for hope, but mere belief is content with a strong personality and a hope filled speech.

The enemy, and attacking the enemy, is the stock in trade of the demagogue. Perhaps, it is the “yellow peril” or the “race polluters.” Many demagogues will return to the old standby (God save us!) “the Jews.” (Always listen for an attack on “the banks” that focusses on Goldman-Sachs and not Chase.) The apocalypse that will come if the demagogue is resisted justifies anything. 

There is no time for dialog, no time for debate. The demagogue must attack the enemies. He is for us and not for them. Why get lost in the details when they are out there? Stop them! Join now.

God save us from the demagogues.