Why would a free people yield their power to the tyranny of the demagogue? It is not reasonable to place your own hands and feet in fetters. In every successful democracy there is a balance between reason and emotion. Rather than advise wisdom, demagogues appeal to the basest popular emotions to overcome reason. American Founder, James Madison, drawing lessons from the best known democracy of history, the democracy of Athens, warned Americans of the danger:
In all very numerous assemblies, of
whatever characters composed, passion never fails to wrest the scepter from
reason. Had every Athenian citizen been
a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.
(James Madison, Federalist no.
55, as quoted in John Samples, “James Madison’s Vision of Liberty,” Cato Policy Report, Vol.XXIII No.2,
March/April 2001, p.12)
Madison recognized that in groups fiery emotion can make for a more persuasive pitch than cooler reason can. He recommended the Constitution as a defense against demagogues, a structure of fundamental limitations on government and against those who would seek to govern by preying upon the passions of the people. The formula has worked and the Constitution has held—against many trials, including a Civil War—for more than 200 years.
The typical demagogue is a forceful speaker who
seeks power by stirring up the people, whom he sees as masses to be manipulated
and managed rather than as a body politic of reasonable individuals. It does not particularly matter which
emotions are invoked against reason; the most successful demagogues draw upon a
variety. Perhaps the emotion most
powerful to the ends of the demagogue is fear, but he will also use hatred,
avarice, envy, sorrow, vanity, vengeance, vainglory, among others. He will even try to invoke love, though love
is hard to make compatible with the demagogue’s message of contention, but it
can be used to garner sympathy and to get people to let down their guard against an
appeal to baser emotions.
Are Americans and the American constitutional
democracy perpetually proof against the demagoguery that has destroyed democracies before? The Founders did not
think so. A popular watch phrase among
them was, “eternal vigilance is the price we pay for liberty”. They were referring more to internal dangers
than dangers from foreign enemies.
How do we keep watch on the threshold of the 21st
Century? Here are ten tests to help unmask the demagogue:
- He gives powerful, emotional speeches, as
public speaking is one of his most powerful tools. “Facts” will usually play a minor role
in the speech, and when used will often either be half-truths or outright
lies, sometimes very big lies with passionate appeal.
- As discussed, emotion rather than reason
predominates in his arguments, with fear the most prevalent emotion.
- He conjures up apocalyptic dangers and
manipulates crises (and creates them when none are readily available). The sky seems to be always about to fall.
- Riding on the wave of crisis, he will offer
sweeping “action plans” that would cede to him major powers and
authorities and push aside sources of opposition. “Forward” is the frequent cry shouted to
drown out objections, “the debate is over.” (In a real democracy, can the debate
ever be “over”?)
- He dishonors the Constitution and violates it
without regret; the Constitution and demagoguery are incompatible. Neither can survive while the other prospers,
to paraphrase J.K. Rowling’s Harry
Potter formula for her fictional demagogue.
- He accuses others of employing his own despicable
tactics. In order to create fog and
camouflage, and blunt criticism of his own actions, the demagogue will
often claim opponents are lying, fomenting contention, engaging in petty partisanship,
and so on, all the while employing those tactics himself. Note that the accusations will usually
employ an appeal to sentiment.
- He points to enemies of the people, enemies that
his plans will vanquish. These
enemies are usually chosen to evoke emotion, such as “big business” to
foster fear, “the rich” to stir envy, race or ethnic divisions to feed
hate.
- He calls for unity while proposing plans that
divide the nation, opponents of his plans being cast as those who would
seek to divide a nation that would be unified by agreeing with him. Issues are chosen that find and feed emotional
fissures in public opinion. Most
effective, the demagogue will propose to take something of value from a
group in a minority and “share” it with the group whose favor he seeks,
such as targeted taxes or confiscations to provide some popular benefit.
- Following on that point, he develops classes
of supporters dependent upon what he promises to give them from the
government, benefits that will need his continued care to be
sustained. That is what lies at the
core of the difficulty in fixing problems with welfare, Medicare, and
Social Security, and why the demagogues have a field day when anyone
offers reasonable proposals to deal with these very real issues.
- He hates a free and independent press that
raises objections of fact and evidence to challenge the emotional appeal,
but he loves an obliging press that magnifies his message and drowns out
dissident appeals to reason.
1 comment:
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