[poconopundit]

It's demagoguery, but used for the good of the country.

I'm not denying Trump's great accomplishments -- I'm one of his biggest fans -- but I agree with Mencken that he's also succeeding because he knows how to influence all the voters, not just the political elite and intelligentsia.

[odawg]

from dictionary.com:

Demagoguery is an appeal to people that plays on their emotions and prejudices rather than on their rational side. Demagoguery is a manipulative approach — often associated with dictators and sleazy politicians — that appeals to the worst nature of people.

Explain what is irrational about Trump’s campaign issues.

[Ohioan]

Let me offer an interesting piece by Mencken on the Conservative Democrat of the same era--the one politician whom Mencken truly admired--who was also the first Senator to rise against Wilson's League of Nations, and one whom I, as a student of his oratory since college, feel absolutely certain would be all in for Donald Trump, today.

Mencken's Tribute To James A. Reed.

Note, Reed rejected Wilson's League a full week before any Republican joined him (Borah, was the first); and as the Mencken piece makes clear, was really the master debater who more than any other destroyed the Wilsonian fallacy.

Reed was also an advocate of a strong Navy, and predicted the course of the Japanese attack in the Pacific in 1922, in opposing the Naval disarmament treaty.