“Donald Trump is a demagogue – he’s a heroic demagogue to his followers, and he’s a dangerous demagogue to everyone else.” — Jennifer Mercieca
Demagogue definition: “A demagogue or rabble-rouser is a leader who gains popularity in a democracy by exploiting emotions, prejudice, and ignorance to arouse the common people against elites, whipping up the passions of the crowd and shutting down reasoned deliberation.”— Wikipedia
Words matter.
As I write, it’s the final leg of the 2020 Presidential Election. In two days, polls close and votes are tabulated. We won’t know who the next President is before we go to bed on Tuesday, November 3. It may take days, perhaps weeks before the final vote is known and certified.
We can bet the farm however, that Trump will go off the rails, spouting conspiracy theories, claims of rigged elections, and voter fraud. Lawyers will prepare legal briefs and suits and the President of the United States will be begin suing states, their election boards, and secretaries of state.
This is the America we currently live in.
Our president is a dangerous demagogue. His tweets are hate speech and a dog whistle for fringe group domestic terrorists. In advance of Tuesday’s election and in anticipation of the chaos and unrest that may follow, businesses in several cities are boarding up windows. Some states with Conceal and Carry Laws will allow citizens to enter polling places armed with guns. Yesterday in Graham, North Carolina, a peaceful march to a polling place by citizens expressing their First Amendment rights were pepper-sprayed by law enforcement, claiming the march was “unsafe and unlawful” due to unspecified “actions.”
This is the America we currently live in.
Also, yesterday, in Texas, the Biden/Harris Campaign Bus was nearly run off the road by a MAGA caravan of Trump supporters in trucks festooned with Trump and American flags. Trump tweeted a video of the caravan surrounding the Biden bus with the caption, “I LOVE TEXAS!”
This is the America we currently live in.
We’ve all witnessed the voter suppression, intimidation, Republican gerrymandering, interference with the USPS and timely delivery of mail-in ballots, the elimination of polling places in neighborhoods of Black and Latinex families, and the long lines of voters during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is the America we currently live in.
Trump’s claims about his ‘reassuring words and optimistic hope’ to protect the public have failed. His declarations that the virus will disappear, that we’re rounding the curve are lies. Over 230,000 Americans have died this year. On Friday, we reached a single-day record of 99,784 new cases surpassing nine million total cases nationwide. We logged more than 500,000 new coronavirus cases last week, averaging an infection every second, over 1,000 deaths per day.
This is the America we currently live in.
Words Matter
This is not the first time I’ve written opinion pieces on words, their power, and impact on our psyche and political discourse. This is the second in the series of Words Matter, the first was Words Matter: The Seven Banned Words of 2017, which chronicled language that Trump, the White House, and his agencies removed from government websites and were banned.
Full disclosure: I’m not a proponent of banning words, or books, or free speech. In March of 2013, the year I launched my blog, I wrote and posted an essay, The Seven Words that addressed the story of Lenny Bruce and George Carlin (see link in the Related Reading section below).
I am, however, someone who understands and respects the power of language and how words matter, words hurt, words create division, words gaslight, and words punish the disenfranchised and powerless. Prior to this post, the last time I dedicated a blog essay to Trump’s use of words was in an opinion piece entitled, Unpresidented. The misspelling was intentional. Following is a list of words and behavior from that essay that Trump employs as a dangerous demagogue:
Projection, Pandering, & Profiteering
Here’s an excerpt from our 2020 Political Primer.
(The following definitions from Merriam-Webster)
- Projection – the attribution of one’s own ideas, feelings, or attitudes to other people or to objects especially: the externalization of blame, guilt, or responsibility as a defense against anxiety.
- Pandering – someone who caters to or exploits the weaknesses of others
- Profiteering – the act or activity of making an unreasonable profit on the sale of essential goods especially during times of emergency.
Doublespeak, Deflection & Disinformation
- Doublespeak – The first definition is from William Lutz who hails from my hometown of Racine, Wisconsin, and is the author of an essay, The World of Doublespeak and the book Doublespeak. His original essay and the book described the four different types of doublespeak (euphemism, jargon, gobbledygook, and inflated language) and the social dangers of doublespeak. (Excerpted from Wikipedia).
“Doublespeak is language which pretends to communicate but doesn’t. It is language which makes the bad seem good, the negative seem positive, the unpleasant seem attractive, or at least tolerable. It is language which avoids, shifts or denies responsibility; language which is at variance with its real or purported meaning. It is language which conceals or prevents thought.” — William Lutz
- Deflection – is a method of changing the course of an object, an emotion or thought from its original source. Psychological deflection is seen as a narcissistic abuse tactic used to control the mind and emotions of others.
- Disinformation – false information deliberately and often covertly spread (as by the planting of rumors) in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth
Words Matter
Following is a short list of Trump’s favorite words, phrases, dog whistles, tweets and trolling language in no particular order or rank:
- Fake news
- Witch hunt
- Russian hoax
- Liars
- China virus
- Deep state
- Rigged election
- Law and order
- Socialists
- Communists
- Radical left
- Antifa
- Traitors
- The Squad
- “Lock her up”
- “Drain the swamp”
- “Very bad things”
- “Fine people on both sides”
- “Stand back and standby”
- “Rounding the curve”
- “It is what it is”
- Name-calling of his opponents and people who disagree with him.
- …and the list goes on. Add your own.
Words Matter
I began this opinion piece with a quote by Jennifer Mercieca from her book, Demagogue For President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump. “Donald Trump is a demagogue – he’s a heroic demagogue to his followers, and he’s a dangerous demagogue to everyone else.” She also wrote an essay, A Field Guide to Trump’s Dangerous Rhetoric for the online site The Conversation (see link in the Additional Reading section below for the full article). Here’s an academic drill down to how Trump uses language (excerpted from her essay):
Trump’s ingratiating strategies
- Ad populum: appealing to the wisdom of the crowd, using popularity as the measure of value.
- Paralipsis: I’m not saying; I’m just saying.
- American exceptionalism: This refers to America’s unique role in the world, simplified by Trump as “America winning.”
Trump’s alienating strategies
- Ad hominem: attacking the person instead of their argument.
- Ad baculum: threats of force or intimidation.
- Reification: treating people as objects.
This is the America we currently live in. We can change the conversation!
Fortunately — as citizens of a free state — we can vote — and if our vote is protected and our system of checks and balances works as it was designed by our constitution — we can change the conversation and restore the discourse that speaks to all Americans, both red and blue states, rich or poor, regardless of class, race, ethnic background, gender, age, religion or country of origin.
If you haven’t voted already, VOTE, your life depends on it!
Related Reading from Mixed Metaphors, Oh My!
Words Matter: The Seven Banned Words of 2017
Additional Reading on Banned Words