Download Haddox 1 Justan Haddox S. Bruner RWS 200

Haddox 1
Justan Haddox
S. Bruner
RWS 200-21
7 March, 2017
Bernie the Demagogue
There is an old saying that states how “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to
repeat it”. People have talked ad nauseam about how Trump is a return to a Hittlerian fascist, or at least
a modern demagogue. But are there other World War II era allegories that could be found today? While
the form of another FDR is difficult to find given current political trends worldwide, it is not as hard as
to draw an allusion between the modern Bernie Sanders and the historical socialists and communists of
Russia. For the uninitiated, Bernie Sanders was an “independent” senator who ran for the Democratic
nomination for the 2016 election. A self-avowed Socialist, he was well known in the younger
generations for being against the 1% of American income earners and sought to benefit the other 99%
by the introduction of more taxes on the top earners and business people. Some people have made a
direct corollary between the existence of Bernie being the demagogue of the left as Trump had been the
demagogue of the right. But such terms are often loose and are debatable in whole. As such this paper
will seek out to determine if Bernie Sanders is a demagogue based on the definition and characteristics
put forth by Patricia Roberts-Miller, one of the leading researchers of demagoguery, and his own
speech to the Democratic National Convention of 2016
According to Roberts-Miller, among the characteristics of demagoguery is the establishment of
in-group and an out-group so “that the demagogue tries to promote the hatred of the ‘out-group’ …
[versus] some group as ‘in’--people like them”(Miller 2). One of Bernie’s key arguments throughout
the campaign has stemmed out of his 1% vs 99% rhetoric. In this speech alone he characterizes the
2016 election to be “about ending the grotesque level of income and wealth inequality that we currently
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experience, the worst it has been since 1928. It is not moral, not acceptable and not sustainable that the
top one-tenth of one percent now own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent, or that the top 1
percent in recent years has earned 85 percent of all new income. That is unacceptable. That must
change.” (Sanders). In doing this, Bernie makes a vast generalization of the American people, dividing
them based on income level. In addition to this generalization he further makes an assumption that all
of the 1% are greedy and immoral and all of the 99% are virtuous for not having as much money.
Bernie’s desire to paint a black and white picture in regards to wealth and morality is at best pandering
to the people who feel disenfranchised due to debt coming out of the housing bubble. It follows the
idea from Erich Fromn that demagoguery is “an escape from freedom”, and in this case it is an escape
from the freedom to make oneself better through trial and error(Miller 462).
Roberts-Miller notes that her characteristics of demagoguery are merely symptoms of it rather
than providing a proper diagnosis to whether one is or isn’t a demagogue. However, like many
diseases, the more symptoms you have the more likely it could be diagnosed. Likewise the next
characteristic Bernie reveals to have is of motivism. Motivism is defined by Roberts-Miller to be “the
assertion that people don’t really have reasons for what they do, but they are motivated by something
else – some dark motive” (Miller 5). Bernie declares how “This election is about remembering where
we were 7 1/2 years ago when President Obama came into office after eight years of Republican
trickle-down economics. The Republicans want us to forget that as a result of the greed, recklessness
and illegal behavior on Wall Street, our economy was in the worst economic downturn since the Great
Depression.”(Sanders). Bernie generalizes the Republican economic ideal of trickle-down economics to
be a purposefully malicious scheme against the 99% rather than just being a different way of thinking
from his own. While people may have a distaste for another’s political viewpoints, it is harder to
attribute to malice than to being a difference of opinion. Regardless, Bernie exemplifies yet another
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characteristic of demagoguery in his speech; thus providing greater reason to characterize him as a
demagogue.
A third characteristic he exhibits is what Roberts-Miller terms oversimplification. As the name
describes, it means to take a large and complex issue and boil it down to being solved by whatever
simple solution that the demagogue proposes. Within this speech Bernie decides to oversimplify the
American health-care system. He states how “all Americans have the right to choose a public option in
their health care exchange. [Hillary Clinton] believes that anyone 55 years or older should be able to
opt in to Medicare and she wants to see millions more Americans gain access to primary health care,
dental care, mental health counseling and low-cost prescription drugs through a major expansion of
community health centers. And What is Donald Trump’s position on health care? No surprise there.
Same old, same old Republican contempt for working families. He wants to abolish the Affordable
Care Act, throw 20 million people off of the health insurance they currently have and cut Medicaid for
lower-income Americans.”(Sanders). In addition to a bit a motivism, Bernie clearly tries to simplify the
health-care solution into either a “free public option” backed by the government or one where there is
a pseudo-oligarchy of haves and have-nots in regard to health-care. Bernie assumes that the 20 million
that were brought on would have no other options should the Affordable Care Act be repealed and
presumably replaced with whatever Republican policy comes to pass. This “my way or the highway”
attitude is characteristic of a demagogue, and as such Bernie appears to fit the role more than ever.
As Roberts-Miller noted demagogues don’t show all of her described characteristics each and
every time they speak. And this is definitely the case for Bernie Sanders. Other speaches he has
performed exhibit other characteristics while obscuring other ones, such is the nature of the
demagogue. While people can not be expected to see and hear everything a particular person or
politician has ever said, it is definitely indicative when they speak using such characteristics on what is
probably the second largest stage outside of the White House itself. If I were to provide judgment in
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this case, I would say unequivocally that Bernie truly is the demagogue of the left. Whether or not he
provides a proper foil to now President Trump remains to be seen, but can be readily discussed as the
President’s term continues.
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Works Cited
Roberts-Miller, Patricia. "Characteristics of Demagoguery, Revised." (n.d.): n. pag. Web.
Roberts-Miller, Patricia. "Democracy, Demagoguery, and Critical Rhetoric."Rhetoric & Public Affairs
8.3 (2005): 459-76. Web.
Sanders, Bernie. "Democratic National Convention Speech ." Pennsylvania, USA, Philadelphia. 26 Jul.
2016. Speech.