DEMAGOGUERY

PART 2

"Trump had to buy his way into the elite, because he is not one of them", said Sracie, "and that's what people like about him. The elites hate him, all of them, on both sides of the aisle".

And voters are sick and tired of the elite. Why? Because the social contract has been broken. One side gets all the benefits, and the other side bears all the costs.

It's not just those who lack a University degree who are fed up. It is middle class families who have been priced out of prestigious Universities. It's also the small business people who can't afford the high-priced attorneys and accountants needed to deal with ever increasing regulations.

"We are increasingly two countries, and it's just not economics: it's also cultural", said the Political Science professor.

In politics, people often joke that the 'golden rule' means that 'the one with golden rules'. But this idea has infected our whole society. The new rule is that are no rules, at least not if you are powerful. That is part of the reason that Hilary Clinton is so disliked.

For so many people she embodies the problem, explained Sracie. "The Clintons never really wanted to challenge the elite, they wanted to be part of it. Think of how quickly 'Bubba Clinton - the man from hope, became Davos Man".

In the 1980's the novelist Tom Wolfe wrote about the 'Masters of the Universe' running Wall Street. And they are still running everything.

"But the people have figured out that in democracy they still hold - literally and figuratively - the Trump card", said Sracie.

The elites can only run things with the American people's permission. Trump is the people's way of withdrawing their permission.

Wolfe's novel was titled "the Bonfire of the Vanities". The Vanities or sins of the elite in the early 21st century is to think that they are ultimately in control.

Sracie goes even further and says :"Trump is the match that ordinary voters can use to burn it all down."

Of course, bonfires are dangerous. They can easily burn out of control. That is exactly what happened. The voters decided that the risk is worth it.

One thing is for certain: The 'Power of the Elites' to control every aspect of the American's lives is over for the foreseeable future.

It is true that for many years now, demagogues have been in great disfavour. They are not sober, they are not respectable, they are not 'gentleman'. And yet, there is a great and growing need for their services.

What exactly, have been the charges levelled against the demagogues? There are a few, but roughly there are three in number.

In the first place, they are disruptive forces in the body politic. They stir things up.

Second, they supposedly fail to play the game in appealing to the base emotions, rather than to cool reason. From this stems the third charge: that they appeal to the unwashed masses with emotional, extreme, and, therefore, unsound views. Add to this the vice of ungentle-manly enthusiasm, and we have about catalogued the sins of the species demagogue.

The charge of emotionalism is surely an irrelevant one.

All demagogues are ideological non-conformists and therefore are bound to be emotional about the general and respectable rejection of what they consider to be vital truth. But not all ideological non-conformists become demagogues. The difference is that the demagogue possesses that quality of mass attraction that permits him to use emotion to stir up the masses. In going to the masses, he is going over the heads of the respectable intellectuals who ordinarily guide mass opinion. It is this electric, short cut appeal direct to the masses that gives the demagogue his vital significance and that makes him such a menace to the dominant orthodoxy.

The demagogue is frequently accused by his enemies of being an insincere opportunist, a man who cynically uses certain ideas and emotions in order to gain popularity and power. It is almost impossible, however, to judge a person's motives, particularly in political life, unless one is a very close friend. We have seen that the sincere demagogue is very likely to be emotional himself, while stirring others to emotion. Finally, if a man is really an opportunist, the easiest way to acclaim and power is to play ball with the ruling orthodoxy, and not the opposite as with Trump. And let's not forget that the way of the demagogue is the riskiest and has the least chance of success.

END OF PART 2

Consulting material:

1. Salema Zita, Washington Examiner.

2. Paul Sracie, Political Science professor.

3. Loren J, Sammons Jr., article about demagoguery.

4. Tom Wolfe, Masters of the Universe.