Meet the Fire-Eaters

[sufrommich]

Have we seen anything like Donald Trump before? As his heated rhetoric cuts a seemingly unstoppable swath across the American political landscape, analysts have been almost flummoxed in finding the right comparison. In its recent mega-analysis of the 95,000 words spoken by Trump over the course of a single given week, the New York Times likened his “fiery language” to the divisive rhetoric of such 20th century American political figures as George Wallace, Joseph McCarthy and Huey Long. Others, alarmed by Trump’s call for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,” have suggested parallels with the rabble rousers-turned-dictators from Europe’s fascist past, Hitler and Mussolini.

This search for comparisons can be a good way to get a grip on a figure like Trump, whose rapid rise and staying power has defied predictions. But it doesn’t need to stray so far from home. Trump is a profoundly American demagogue, part of a long tradition, and one whose roots go far deeper than the 20th-century populists whose names usually come up. The true pioneers of what might be called the American political tradition of demagoguery were a cadre of Southern orators from the decades leading up to the Civil War, men adept at arousing and manipulating the fears and anxieties of their target audience in the service of their cherished cause—to prod the South into leaving the Union in order to save the institution of slavery and protect Southern “rights” generally. They were known, at least to their critics, as the Fire-Eaters.


The times were different, of course. But the similarities are remarkable, all the more so viewed at a distance of more than 150 years. The tactics that mark Trump’s approach to politics—the doubling down on his rhetoric when challenged, the resort to insult and innuendo, the treatment of all politics as personal, the catering to prejudice (Mexican immigrants are “rapists”)—all of them were tactics used by the Fire-Eaters. They took brilliant advantage, as does Trump, of a fragmented, partisan media culture, and even helped stoke a “birther” controversy of their times. And there are intriguing similarities of temperament between The Donald and his precursors.
The Fire-Eaters, then, can offer a revealing window into understanding Trump and his maneuvers—a window into apprehending this perhaps improbable but nonetheless sturdy archetype, the American demagogue.
***




Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/fire-eaters-donald-trump-demagogue-2016-213498#ixzz3wBtV9msI

[Iliyah]

1. T-rump and the rest of the GOPs are a danger to the USA & world