From :
Former Texas Governor and 2016 Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry recently confronted Donald Trump鈥檚 2016 presidential campaign, calling it an act of "Trump-ism," which he defined as 鈥渁 toxic mix of demagoguery and nonsense.鈥�
Michael Signer wrote a book on demagoguery, 鈥淒emagogue: The Fight to Save Democracy From its Worst Enemies.鈥� He鈥檚 also about the topic. Signer shared his thoughts on demagoguery and its relation to the current political race for the presidency with the Texas Standard.
On the creation of demagogues:
鈥淒emagogues are kind of a creature of democracy. When you start introducing mass politics, there will always be opportunists that will arrive in the democracy.鈥�
On the definition of a demagogue:
鈥淭hey have the ability to create waves of kind of mass emotion. They use that emotion for political benefit. They posture as a man of the people, and the fourth and most important rule is they threaten to kind of break established rules of governance.鈥�
On redefining demagoguery:
鈥淒emagogues, I think, [arose] because of a combination of ambition and shamelessness. Demagogues have always been nipped in the bud by constitutionalism, by a culture where people think very carefully about how they want to give power to politicians.鈥�
Michael Signer鈥檚 new book, 鈥�,鈥� looks at the life of the fourth president, the impact he had on American government, and some of the biggest issues he faced while in office.
