Demagogue dĕm′ə-gôg″, -gŏg″ n. A leader who makes use of popular prejudices and false claims and promises in order to gain power. Demagogues exploit a perennial weakness of democracies: the greater numbers, and hence votes, of the lower classes and less-educated people—the people most prone to be whipped up into a fury and led to catastrophic action by an orator skilled at fanning that kind of flame. Democracies are instituted to ensure freedom for all and popular control over government authority. Demagogues turn power deriving from popular support into a force that undermines the very freedoms and rule of law that democracies are made to protect.
The weakness of any democracy that demagogues exploit is the very power of the people to put someone in power.
A demagogue has been described as "a politician skilled in oratory, flattery and invective; evasive in discussing vital issues; promising everything to everybody; appealing to the passions rather than the reason of the public; and arousing racial, religious, and class prejudices – a man whose lust for power without recourse to principle leads him to seek to become a master of the masses. He has for centuries practiced his profession of 'man of the people'. He is a product of a political tradition nearly as old as western civilization itself."
Methods used.
The most fundamental demagogic technique is scapegoating: blaming the in-group's troubles on an out-group, usually of a different ethnicity, religion, or social class.
Many demagogues have risen to power by evoking fear in their audiences, to stir them to action and prevent deliberation.
When one lie doesn't work, the demagogue quickly moves on to more lies.
Demagogues have demonstrated remarkable skill at moving audiences to great emotional depths and heights during a speech. The demagogues' charisma and emotional oratory many times enabled them to win elections despite opposition from the press.
Demagogic oratory distracts, entertains, and enthralls, steering followers' attention away from the demagogue's usual history of lies, abuses of power, and broken promises.
Another fundamental demagogic technique is making promises only for their emotional effect on audiences, without regard for how they might be accomplished or without intending to honor them once in office.
Demagogues have often encouraged their supporters to violently intimidate opponents, both to solidify loyalty among their supporters and to discourage or physically prevent people from speaking out or voting against them.
Many demagogues have found that ridiculing or insulting opponents is a simple way to shut down reasoned deliberation of competing ideas.
A common demagogic technique is to pin an insulting epithet on an opponent, by saying it repeatedly, in speech after speech, when saying the opponent's name or in place of it.
Many demagogues violate standards of decorum outrageously, to show clearly that they are thumbing their noses at the established order and the genteel ways of the upper class, or simply because they enjoy the attention that it brings.
Most demagogues have made a show of appearing to be down-to-Earth, ordinary citizens just like the people whose votes they sought.
Demagogues commonly treat complex problems, which require patient reasoning and analysis, as if they result from one simple cause or can be solved by one simple cure.
Since information from the press can undermine a demagogue's spell over his or her followers, modern demagogues have often attacked it intemperately, calling for violence against newspapers who opposed them, claiming that the press was secretly in the service of moneyed interests or foreign powers, or claiming that leading newspapers were simply personally out to get them.
Once elected to executive office, most demagogues have moved quickly to expand their power, by getting legislation passed to officially expand their authority, and by building up networks of corruption and informal pressure to ensure that their dictates are followed regardless of constitutional authority.
Demagogues typically appoint people to high office based on personal loyalty without regard to competence for the office.
Since the only thing important to a demagogue is power, the nation and the people that bring a demagogue to power are of secondary importance.
Demagoguery is nothing new. "The shortest way to ruin a country is to give power to demagogues." — Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquities of Rome, VI (20 BC).
It can change a country quickly. Germany in just four months went from a democracy to a nation that eventually would cause the death of hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Adolph Hilter was a master at demagoguery but in the end he blamed the very same people who put him in power for the destruction of his country.
Unless people realize the danger we currently face we may be doomed to repeat what has happened before many times in history. The internet and social media have combined to make the tools used by a demagogue even more easy to implement and powerful.
I love my country and would give my life to defend it from our enemies.
But if we continue to follow the path we are on we need not fear an external enemy, because the enemy that will destroy us is ourselves for believing lies without proof, doctored videos without inquiry, and politicians, without question.
God help us if that is our ultimate fate.
