The Demagogue and the Ambitious Miscreant: Politicians the founders warned you about
Thoughts on the election of Donald Trump and J.D Vance
I wish I had words of wisdom to offer you today, but words simply fail me. It's hard to process the emotions, shock, fear, and disappointment of this moment.
Trump and Vance ran a campaign that centered on hate, misogyny, and vengeance— and majority of Americans said, “Yes, that's what I want! Those are my values! They hate all the right people- the people I hate, too.”
As words fail me, I offer you today a bit of wisdom from America’s Founders that I believe captures the severity of this moment. As you will see, Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are the politicians that the Founders warned us about.
The Demagogue
Donald Trump - a man convicted of sexual assault and fraud, who tried to overthrow American democracy - is the dreaded demagogue that America's Founders warned against.1 A demagogue is “the type of politician who assembles power by manipulating the emotions of the masses, particularly by stoking fear and hatred of targeted groups. If the partisan undermines healthy political engagement through the division of the populace, the demagogue does so by separating the populace from reason and patience. Demagogues initially win the people through emotional appeal; in the longer term, they can manipulate those emotions to undermine lasting values and destroy democratic structures… The Founders recognized and feared demagogues. Their concern was so great as to be characterized as an ‘obsession.’… The Founders warned against the most obvious form of the demagogue: the manipulative orator, able to sway crowds through overwrought and under-reasoned rhetoric… The Founders also warned of the demagogue’s focus on values other than the public good. They cautioned against the tendency of demagogues to present themselves as champions of ‘the people’ and their liberties. Yet, demagogues use these mantras to build political power for themselves, not to truly protect and build up the populace. The Founders further cautioned that demagogues value their own ability to gain and maintain power over democracy itself. They explicitly warned that demagogues readily become tyrants. The danger of demagogues becoming tyrants was so well-known and alarming to the Founders that they warned of it in both the first and last entry in The Federalist Papers… The Founders also warned that the connection of demagogues to public passions promotes division rather than unity. To the Founders, a crucial vice of demagogues is their tendency to exacerbate faction… In the case of demagogues, the focus on manipulating base emotion rather than cultivating reasoned civic virtue intensifies a host of ills.”2
Donald Trump is the demagogue the Founders feared.— Yet, a majority of Americans said, “That's what I want! That's who I admire and revere. Trump is my guy!”
The Ambitious Miscreant
J.D. Vance - a man consumed by a pathological hatred of women - embodies the figure of the ambitious miscreant so decried by the Founders.3 “Ambition was a profound fear within the classical republican tradition that had influenced the Founders… While ambition properly channeled and placed in opposition to other balancing ambitions could be salutary, the Founders continued to warn that public figures would turn their ambition from achieving glory in service of the common good towards personal avarice and vanity, using public service to personal advantage… [T]he pathologic ambition the Founders warned against was that political figures would place their personal interests ahead of the public good… The fear was that individuals of low conduct and capacity could advance through their… populism... Absent mediating systems that the Founders envisioned, ambitious but unqualified individuals can advance through ill-informed and self-aggrandizing populism. Ambition is necessary, while ability is seemingly optional.”4
This is J.D. Vance. — And yet, majority of Americans said, “That's the kind of guy I want to be second in command. Vance is on my side!”
Final thoughts
Today, we lament.
Today, we mourn.
Tomorrow, we get back to work and resume the fight.
Fulton, N. (2024). Politicians the founders warned you about. UC Law SF Scholarship Repository. https://repository.uclawsf.edu/hastings_constitutional_law_quaterly/vol51/iss3/4/
Fulton, N. (2024). Politicians the founders warned you about. UC Law SF Scholarship Repository. https://repository.uclawsf.edu/hastings_constitutional_law_quaterly/vol51/iss3/4/
Fulton, N. (2024). Politicians the founders warned you about. UC Law SF Scholarship Repository. https://repository.uclawsf.edu/hastings_constitutional_law_quaterly/vol51/iss3/4/
Fulton, N. (2024). Politicians the founders warned you about. UC Law SF Scholarship Repository. https://repository.uclawsf.edu/hastings_constitutional_law_quaterly/vol51/iss3/4/