Member-only story
The Return of a Demagogic Populist President after 200 Years
This year, our nation experienced the mobilization of the lowest economic class against the establishment controlled by the elites for the second time. It’s not a Marxist revolution or a fascist coup; it’s a significant portion of American voters uprising to overthrow the established order.
This bare majority may not endure, but a visible eruption has abandoned the liberal normality of prioritizing rational and humane behavior. But it is not a foreign-inspired movement. It is a domestic insurrection born from our political culture dating back to the 1800s.
Many voters probably saw the Democrat’s and Liberals’ Presidential campaign as a cry that the sky is falling. It may be, but it won’t be the first time. Two hundred years ago, a prior demagogic populist president was elected, and our democracy survived. It remains to be how if it will again.
Demagogic Populists Rise from Outside the Political Parties
Upon winning his first term, President Donald Trump prominently hung a portrait of Jackson behind his desk in the Oval Office. President Andrew Jackson was President Donald Trump’s hero. Trump visions himself as another populist outsider and the scourge of Washington elites.
