Have you turned on the radio in the past 20 years? What do you mean demagogues haven't gotten a foothold? Surely you are not serious. If you really believe that I guess you haven't taken a cross country drive listening to the radio in a long, long, long time. I can tell ya out here in the midwest, despite the favorable election results we have a serious problem just under the surface and if you don't recognize it for what it is you'll be sorry when this vile, reactionary right wing pushes back and they will.

If you ever listened to Rush on a roll you've heard Father Coughlin and Joe McCarthy on steroids! And Rush is just the #1 franchise for demagoguery. He has dozens and dozens of imitators and mini-me's out there on the airwaves. Many of those mini-me's say things that make Rush look like a skilled senior diplomat. What you've written reminds me of the famous quote of the east coast columnist after the 72 election saying she didn't know what happened since none of the people she knew voted for Nixon.

Now, this is a bit tongue in cheek because you've obviously heard of Rush, et al... but it seems you really misinterpret or don't appreciate their vast power and that they have barely turned up the volume. They aren't stupid. They know their side has been blamed for the crash and rightly so (pardon the pun). They now lie in wait for the slightest failure of the new Democratic administration so they can go balls to the wall blaming the black President in thinly and not so thinly veiled references and declare themselves the saviors of the "real" America. America was nearly captured by these people and much of the corporate media was cowed into imitating them for several of the Bush years. Tell the Dixie Chicks about how the demagoguery of the right can't get a foothold. Right wing demagoguery is alive, well, thriving and it is an extent threat to our republic.

Take a good look at how "constitutionalism" protected our liberty in the face of a lawless criminal gang under Bush. Most of the people in a postition to object to all the illegal and unconstitutional activities were terrified of saying anything because they might be targeted by Bush and Rush and their coterie of character assassins. If those in a position to use constitutionalism to block demagoguery are too chicken to asser themselves it seems a perfect environment for demagoguery to win the day.

I thought a short excerpt from the book might clarify what I mean by constitutionalism, which I define specifically.

"[T]he most robust and useful idea of constitutionalism, which Alexis de Tocqueville described most powerfully, [is]: a living culture of political values among ordinary people that (1) promotes the individual’s private sense of self-worth and responsi-bility for democracy’s success and (2) publicly operates as a counter-vailing political force on those who would gather power and break rules in doing so. The sum of constitutionalism is that it controls those who seek an undue amount of authority. In the words of another scholar.

"The contemporary political theorist George Kateb has written that, constitutionalism works by “chastening authority.” Mark Brzezinski explains that constitutionalism “is a state of mind, an expectation, a norm in which politics must be conducted in accordance with standing rules or conventions, written or unwritten, that cannot easily be changed; it is a principle whereby all power is limited, and whereby forces of power can act and decide only within strict limits defined by the national constitution.”

"The two valences of constitutionalism—the internal and the external—allow the people collectively to militate against demagogues and constantly perpetuate a just, equal, and fair political order. In the words of another one political scientist, a “positive requirement of a working democracy is an intelligent distrust of its leadership, a skepticism stubborn but not blind, of all demands for the enlargement of power, and an emphasis upon critical method in every phase of social life.”

"In the end, constitutionalism is about ordinary people doing ordinary things in their ordinary lives to an extraordinary end. As Voltaire said in Candide, “Cultivate your garden.” Constitutionalism is not a glamorous affair; it is, instead, weeding and tending. As Arendt argued, a constitution can be both a written document and a constant act of a people constituting their government."

"[C]onstitutionalism isn’t about laws, precisely—it’s about the spirit that underlies those laws. As Strauss put it, “The politeia is more fundamental than any laws; it is the source of all laws.” Constitutionalism is the culture that fights concentrated authority; it is a constant warning, in the people’s hearts and minds, to those who would be strongmen."

This doesn't mean America's constitutionalism has been perfect - certainly it has not been, and it requires vigilance as well as alertness to when we are tested (such as by the Bush administration's oversteps, including the very dangerous "unitary executive" theory). It is to say, however, that in a time when many Americans are suffering "democracy fatigue" after Iraq and Afghanistan, that we should refresh our understanding of constitutionalism as the soul of a successful democracy, and renew our drive to understand, build, and maintain these alive and self-aware system, both here and abroad.

Nothing like a little provocation to stir up teh commenters, eh? I'll nominate the entire 'Republican Revolution.' Their rise to power, and takedown of Clinton is textbook demagoguery. Look around, and you'll still see Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay rabble-rousing their black little hearts out on cable 'newz.'

If anything, right-wing newz outlets, and the gaming of the Washington media elite by the right wing have institutionalized and professionalized demagoguery.