What does Michael Barone mean by “Demotic?” I don’t see anything in this article that has to do with an ancient Egyptian alphabet.
“Demotic” means the language of populism. As in, demotic Greek vs. Koine Greek.
It’s Greek to me.
1. 1 : of, relating to, or written in a simplified form of the ancient Egyptian hieratic writing.
2 : popular, common < demotic idiom >
3 : of or relating to the form of Modern Greek that is based on everyday speech
So the only definition that fits is #3
Vulgar (in the classic sense): of the common people.
Usually, only condescending “intellectuals” use a word like this. (I love well-used English, and I prefer specificity in terminology, but if a more common word will do, I use it, as long as it is not slang.)
I think Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn uses it in his books, but he was both an intellectual giant and foreign born (Austrian, I think); he was fluent in a scholarly type of English not commonly used in America.