On the menu today: We’ve often heard Donald Trump denounced as a demagogue, but that argument often skips past the first step: Why is it bad for a leader to be a demagogue? What are the likely consequences when a leader starts to act like a demagogue?
The Problem with Pressing Buttons
A bomb threat was called in just as a judge in lower Manhattan was about to start a hearing over a $250 million lawsuit by New York Attorney General Letitia James against Donald Trump.
Tuesday’s 911 call was investigated, the courthouse at 60 Centre Street temporarily closed and searched, and the threat deemed unfounded, state court spokesman Lucian Chalfen said.
Why are leaders not supposed to be demagogues?
Merriam-Webster defines a demagogue as “a leader who makes use of popular prejudices and false claims and promises in order to gain power.” I would expand that a bit to define it as a leader who presses the emotional buttons of fear and anger in an excessive or unjustifiable manner, appealing to those base, irrational emotions to stir up the public into a frenzy, getting people to choose a path they would otherwise never choose and act in manners they otherwise never would embrace.
The amygdalae are clusters of almond-shaped cells located in the brain’s base that activate the body’s fight-or-flight response. This part of our brain evolved to handle direct physical threats — e.g., “That tiger is going to eat me.” Thankfully, in today’s modern society, we (hopefully) encounter fewer life-or-death physical threats. But we can still face all kinds of other threats, and our body responds similarly — a quickened pulse, expanded airways to transport more oxygen, dilated pupils. Some people, when encountering stress, experience what’s called an “amygdala hijack” — emotions take over, the brain’s frontal lobes are effectively shoved away from the steering wheel, and the person often reacts with extreme, inappropriate, or irrational behavior.
We all like to believe that we are rational, calm, clear-thinking people. But if, God forbid, someone called and said one of our loved ones had just been taken hostage by a deranged gunman, your amygdala would kick into overdrive. Very few of us would be good at making clear, rational, patient decisions with careful measurements of risk. We would want to race in to confront the gunman, or have the cops confront the gunman, and save our loved one as soon as humanly possible. Our amygdala is very hard to overrule when the fear of losing someone or something dear to us is so strong.
If the hostages were not our loved ones and merely strangers, we might be able to examine the situation clearly and rationally, and perhaps accept an approach designed to talk the gunman down. But in that circumstance, our amygdala is less likely to attempt to hijack our decision-making.
Leaders are not supposed to be demagogues because it’s wrong, and leaders are not supposed to be demagogues because it’s usually a lousy and ineffective form of leadership in the long run. But perhaps the biggest reason leaders are not supposed to be demagogues is because the act represents a leader playing with fire — or maybe nitroglycerin is the more appropriate metaphor. Like a fire, fear and anger can flare up out of control, beyond the control of the leader. Like nitroglycerin, fear and anger can suddenly explode. People who are frightened or angry make impulsive, rash decisions. They’re not interested in a deliberate, measured, careful evaluation of the best course of action. There is a ticking clock counting down in their heads, and they see deliberation as inaction. They feel a sense of impending disaster and desperation, and all kinds of once-unthinkable actions now appear justified because of the dire stakes.
Does Donald Trump want people calling in bomb threats to the courthouse at 60 Centre Street in New York? Let’s be generous and assume the answer is no. The case is going to go forward one way or another; a bomb threat just delays the inevitable legal proceedings.
However, it is clear that Donald Trump wants to see widespread protests outside any courtroom where he is being tried, and he wants his supporters to feel as much fear and anger as possible. His messages on Truth Social are now borderline apocalyptic:
IT’S TIME!!! WE ARE A NATION IN STEEP DECLINE, BEING LED INTO WORLD WAR III BY A CROOKED POLITICIAN WHO DOESN’T EVEN KNOW HE’S ALIVE, BUT WHO IS SURROUNDED BY EVIL & SINISTER PEOPLE WHO, BASED ON THEIR ACTIONS ON DEFUNDING THE POLICE, DESTROYING OUR MILITARY, OPEN BORDERS, NO VOTER I.D., INFLATION, RAISING TAXES, & MUCH MORE, CAN ONLY HATE OUR NOW FAILING USA. WE JUST CAN’T ALLOW THIS ANYMORE. THEY’RE KILLING OUR NATION AS WE SIT BACK & WATCH. WE MUST SAVE AMERICA! PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!
And:
China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and other Nations of a less than friendly nature, are busy “CARVING UP THE WORLD” as our once great United States of America sits back and watches. We are a Failing Nation, with Open Borders, Fake Elections, and a horrible Inflation Riddled Economy. We no longer set the standard, the standard sets us. Our so-called “Leader” does NOTHING except Eat, Sleep, and S..t! Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio?”
Just as he did after the events of January 6, 2021, Trump will insist he only meant peaceful protest. But we know not everyone who listens to Trump hears or grasps any instruction to be peaceful. Some people think the best way to help Donald Trump is to send pipe bombs in the mail. Some think they can best help him by assaulting police officers. Some thought the best way they could help him was by bringing their guns to vote-counting sites. This is not a one-time occurrence; there is a recurring pattern of Trump supporters who believe they hear the president asking for their help, and then think the best way they can help is through violence.
Trump’s rhetoric has always had demagogic elements, but now his speeches and Truth Social feed are just a constant rant, designed to trigger your amygdalae. As I mentioned above, it is very hard to overrule when the fear of losing someone or something dear to us is so strong. And Trump is now telling us, over and over again, that our nation is being “killed,” we are “failing,” and we are in “steep decline”:
“WE JUST CAN’T ALLOW THIS ANYMORE. THEY’RE KILLING OUR NATION AS WE SIT BACK & WATCH. WE MUST SAVE AMERICA! PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!”
Trump plays with fire, and he doesn’t particularly care who gets burned, as long as it isn’t him.
A wise leader — political, spiritual, cultural, social, economic — would want his people to be experiencing the feelings of fear and anger as little as possible, or only when it is justified and appropriate. The world is full of genuine reasons to feel fearful. Terrorists, nuclear-armed hostile states, violent criminals, ruthless gangs and drug cartels, hackers who won’t even hesitate to target a children’s hospital. And those are just the malevolent human forces that could bedevil us. Beyond that, there’s cancer, car accidents, heart disease, household accidents, a sudden job loss, a sudden economic calamity, or some natural disaster striking. Constantly thinking about every danger that could befall you in life is a surefire path to anxiety, chronic stress, and misery.
The serenity prayer asks God to grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Most of us get through life by taking some steps to manage those risks — not cutting through the dark alley at night, wearing our seat belt, eating our vegetables, wearing sunscreen — and praying God will look out for us on the rest.
Life is hard enough without leaders who press the fear and anger buttons as often as possible. You may have noticed that the news media is full of stories that are designed to make you feel fearful and angry. A recent study published in Nature added to the supporting evidence that news consumers are more likely to click on a link to a news story if it features negative language:
In the current age, people are more likely to share and engage with online content that is embedding anger, fear or sadness. . . .
We find that a higher share of negative language in news headlines increases the CTR [click-through rate], whereas a higher share of positive language decreases the CTR. It is important to note that headlines belong to the ‘same’ news story and, therefore, phrasing news, regardless of its story, in a negative language increases the rate of clicking on a headline.
We’re awash in information designed to evoke fear and anger. A potential national leader who sees that fear and anger as a tool is just throwing more gasoline onto an already-blazing fire.
Trump is not the only factor adding to the fear and anger in American daily life. If Trump were suddenly hit on the head and decided he wanted to spend the rest of his days in soft-spoken, gentle seclusion, we would still be tormented by those who see personal benefit in stirring up fear and anger in order to gain power. (“Gonna put y’all back in chains!”) But right now, Trump is a powerful accelerant to the bonfires of dread and rage.
A good leader recognizes the periodic need to communicate risk and potential danger to the public, but sets out to do it in a way that minimizes the fear. Sometimes, like during an event such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, fear is inevitable. (Or to contemplate a more recent example, the president should not blurt out that the world “faced the prospect of Armageddon” during a Democratic Party fundraiser.) And a good leader may wish to harness American anger over an event such as 9/11 and turn it into action, something productive and constructive.
As the wise philosopher Benjamin Parker told us, “With great power comes great responsibility.”
Responsibility is in short supply these days.
ADDENDUM: It is amazing how many Twitter randos responded to the phrase, “If you come at the king, you had best not miss” as a declaration that I see Trump as a king.