How do modern politicians use demagoguery in order to manipulate their constituency?
Signer, Michael. Demagogue: The Fight to Save Democracy from Its Worst Enemies. New York City, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2009. Print.
Michael Signer’s critical analysis of past demagogues such as Huey Long, Hugo Chavez, and Moqtada al-Sadr in his book, Demagogue helped give me a large insight in the mechanics of demagoguery as well as the power-corrupted politicians that use it. Signer’s compelling narrative constructs various stories about some of history’s most interesting figures such as Adolf Hitler, and Joe McCarthy. I especially enjoyed reading about his explanation on how humanity's urge for liberty can give rise to dark forces that threaten that very freedom. Signer constructs a great amount of analysis of demagoguery used in the past, such as George W. Bush's naïve democratic experiment in Iraq, and the demagogues who plagued the French Revolution. In order to find a solution to democracy’s demagogue problem, the book delves into the stories of four great thinkers who all personally struggled with democracy: Plato, Alexis de …show more content…
What intrigued me the most was the last section of the article where Glasser was analyzing Trump’s negative actions. Glasses had brung up a situation where Trump was bragging off-camera to an Access Hollywood reporter of his sexually aggressive behavior toward women. Her article’s goal was somewhat to bring up an exposure of the negative side of politicians, including Trump. The article didn't have much of an impact on my project because of the somewhat little mention of post-truth, but there were key parts of information in the article that will somewhat aide me in my