Patricia Roberts-Miller's 'Characteristics Of Demagoguery'

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Demagoguery describes the political activity in a democracy which exploits prejudice and appeals to emotion of the common people rather than using rational reasoning to achieve certain political goals. A demagogue is the politician who practices demagoguery to achieve personal desires. Patricia Roberts-Miller has studied demagoguery and she defines demagoguery as a “polarizing propaganda that motivates members of an ingroup to hate and scapegoat some outgroup(s), largely by promising certainty, stability, and what Erich Fromm famously called ‘an escape from freedom’” (Characteristics of Demagoguery 1). In her article “Characteristics of Demagoguery” and Denver talk “Rhetoric and Demagoguery”, Roberts-Miller introduces and explains characteristics …show more content…

Meanwhile, he makes numerous promises to American citizens saying he will immediately solve all the issues caused by illegal immigrants under the enforcement of his new policies once he wins the presidency. Trump tries to gain possibility of winning the presidency with his speech using demagoguery. However, some of Trump’s solutions and promises toward illegal immigration problems appear to be quite extreme. For example, he repeatedly states that he will deport all illegal immigrants the very first day and hour when he steps into office: “Day one, my first hour in office, those people are gone”(The New York Times Par. 60) Moreover, he points out the flaws of Barack Obama’s presidency and Hilary Clinton’s policies toward illegal immigration and criminal aliens, promising his audience that he would be more decisive and would take immediate action toward these problems. With several demagogic rhetorical strategies, Trump wins many applauses and supports by saying words that American people want to hear during his presidential campaign. Trump’s speech toward immigration does address certain elements of demagoguery such as victimization,

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