If you look up the definition of demagogue, you’re likely to find that it means a leader that makes use of popular prejudices and false claims to gain power. But if you lived in the days of the glory of Greece and Rome, it simply meant a leader championing the cause of the common people.
That’s the big difference between Donald Trump and someone like Huey Long, a man who was so popular, he was elected both Governor and Senator for the state of Louisiana, holding both offices at the same time.
What’s the difference between Trump and Long? Almost everything.
Huey Long was a man who took on the challenge of big corporations like Standard Oil that was sucking oil out of the swamps of the state without paying a single penny to the people of Louisiana. He was a man who inherited a state that had very few bridges, especially across the Mississippi River; no highways outside the major cities; no hospitals that the poor could afford; no colleges or universities cheap enough for the poor. Huey Long changed all that and had a member of the ruling class not assassinated him, he probably would have defeated Roosevelt who was running for his second term as president of the United States.
Donald Trump is a member of the group that the ancient demagogues ran against. He is a member of the .01 percent of the ruling elite in the United States. As such, he has offered no real, workable proposals to help the poor. And he is against raising the minimum salary for the working class and is reducing taxes for the very rich.
You can see Trump’s true attitude toward helping the out-of-work and poor in America by how he treated the small businesses he used in building his empire. In almost all cases, he short-changed and threatened court if they tried to get payments from him. They usually settled out of court at a vastly smaller rate than agreed upon.
Huey Long never questioned whether the ruling elite had rigged the voting against him. He just campaigned hard and tough and even though the rich controlled many aspects of the voting systems in Louisiana (all the newspapers), every race Long entered, he won overwhelmingly. Huey Long would never give up and start whining about the system being rigged. He just worked a little harder.
Donald Trump, you’re no Huey Long!
Michael Vetrie