“For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost [...] That all changes - starting right here...”.[1] Those were the words of Donald Trump as he addressed The United States of America for the first time as President moments after having taken his oath of office. Objectively speaking, there is nothing to support the notion that America has become a utopia over the course of the past few years even though Trump's presidency has been a departure from the political norms of Washington. While Donald Trump’s brand of politics may seem mesmerizing at times, one would learn that his style is not necessarily unique. In today’s world, we have a whole swath of leaders who have risen in democracies that share similar approaches to Donald Trump when it comes to politics. More importantly, there have been comparable political figures operating within various democratic governments in the past. Such historical figures have been studied and their legacies have been established. As a result, we can use those historical figures to paint a clearer picture of Trump-like politicians by drawing parallels between them, which would help one to understand the circumstances in democracies that allow for such leaders to take charge.
If there is any place to look in history for lessons about democratic forms of government, one of the best to look at would be Ancient Greece. Ancient Greece had numerous examples of democracies based in city-states, with Athens being the most powerful of the democratic city-states and arguably the most well known out of all them.[2] While Athenian democracy was characteristically different from American democracy today, as the right to participate in politics were not granted to certain groups of people, the fundamental mechanics of democracy are comparable.[3] The people of Ancient Greece supported leaders they found favourable and ousted politicians that they thought were inept like how Americans do so today. Just like any other nation today with democratic forms of government, Athens had its fair share of leaders with different styles of leadership.
When it came to Athens in Ancient Greece, different parts of the government played different roles when it came to decision making. One particular group of officials were called the “strategoi”, who were ten elected chief generals that led the Athenian army and their positions became highly sought after, which was because of their political influence, the fact they had no term limits, and the absence of the random selection system that was in place for other political offices.[4]
In Athenian history, there were many notable individuals who served as strategos and one particular strategos that is of interest when one is thinking about Trump-like politicians would be Cleon. To start off, Cleon was an Athenian strategos who rose to prominence following the death of Pericles during the Plague of Athens and the Peloponnesian War around 427 BC.[5] Most importantly, there were many things about the ways in which Cleon conducted politics in Athens as a strategos that are comparable to how Donald Trump has acted during his presidency. Analyzing the similarities between Cleon and Trump will allow for one to better understand how such leaders attain popularity in the first place.
For starters, both Donald Trump and Cleon have been described as demagogues and that notion is arguably true. In short, a demagogue is a politician who exploits the populace in various ways to achieve popularity.[6] In Cleon’s case, you have numerous historical sources that establishes the fact that he was a demagogue. For instance, you have a text from Ancient Greece called “The History of the Peloponnesian War”, which was written by a Greek historian named Thucydides, and this text describes the course of the Peloponnesian War while featuring Cleon at various points. To give some context, the Peloponnesian War was a conflict that lasted from 431 BC to 404 BC and was fought between two alliances of city-states, with Athens leading the Delian League while Sparta lead the Peloponnesian Alliance.[7] During the war, the island of Lesbos was a member of the Delian league but a revolt of the island led by the city-state of Mytilene was committed against Athens.[8] The uprising failed and Mytilene was held responsible for the events that conspired, which led to an Athenian debate over how to deal with Mytilene and that was where Cleon notably demonstrated his character as a politician.[9]
In the Athenian assembly that gathered to debate over what Athens would do about Mytilene’s revolt, Cleon advocated for the execution of the entire Mytilene adult male populace along with the enslavement of all the women and children, and he did so in a particular way that demonstrated that he was a demagogue, which was in many ways comparable to Donald Trump.[10] For instance, Cleon makes numerous statements such as “In order to keep you from this, I proceed to show that no one state has ever injured you as much as Mytilene”.[11] Many of Cleon’s statements goes to show how he was playing on the emotions of the Athenian politicians and citizens at the time of the debate. Given that Athens was in war, people would have been understandably angry at Mytilene for their revolt and Cleon attempted to channel such emotions to advocate for what he felt was right, which was to commit a massacre against all Mytilenean men and to enslave everyone else. Advocating for the punishment of all Mytileneans had no logical basis because many civilians had no part in what was happening, which would make that proposal largely reactionary.
Cleon’s tactic of playing on the emotions of the populace is comparable to how Donald Trump has conveyed his political agenda and beliefs. In 2019, it was reported that Donald Trump made a series of comments directed to Mexican migrants in 2018, and such statements from Trump emphasize the notion that there is an “invasion” of the United States from the US-Mexico border and that much of the migrants are criminals who are wrecking havoc in the United States.[12] In Trump’s statements, he uses words that do not necessarily characterize events in a manner that is factually accurate. Instead, its clear that Trump adds a degree of hyperbole to the messages that he puts forth because the US has obviously not been “invaded” in the way he makes it out to be if one pays attention to what is actually going on at the US-Mexico border. In this way, Trump is very much like Cleon because he is trying to play on the emotions of fear and anger of the US populace over the migrants from Mexico to push his ideas of what should be done with regards to immigration. In a democratic government, all politicians need to garner support for the policies they propose, and the majority of them do so on the basis of persuasive ideas that are rooted in ideological principles revolving around facts, while individuals like Trump and Cleon lean towards using tactics like the exploitation of the populace's emotions to acquire support for their proposals, which is what makes them demagogues.
The similarities between Trump and Cleon do not end with them both being demagogues as they also share commonalities with regards to their ideas about government in their respective time periods. For instance, one can see the parallel between Cleon’s thoughts about politics guided by principles or intellectualism and Trump’s opinion on conventional politics. At the Athenian assembly over the Mytilenean revolt, Cleon remarked that “instead of being led on by cleverness and intellectual rivalry to advise your people against our real opinions”.[13] For Donald Trump, he has continually shown his skepticism towards the findings presented by experts that have been used by conventional politicians to draft government policies with regards to topics like climate change.[14] The result of all this is that you have politicians who actively champion the idea of making decisions that are not thoroughly evaluated.
Trump and Cleon have many comparable qualities as politicians yet they are over 2000 years apart from each other. As such, it's safe to say that both the rise of Trump and Cleon are representative of patterns in democratically run governments and history. Figures like Trump and Cleon need to be understood and taken seriously because their support is often garnered through the manipulative tactics that they employ and not necessarily on the basis of facts, morals, or principles. Emotions and instinctive reactions are a fundamental part of human nature, and political views can be deeply personal but the making of government decisions on the basis of emotional or sensational appeal can take democracies down a dangerous path because the consequences of such unreasoned decisions can be drastic and irreversible. The repercussions of that dangerous path is evident today in the United States, where the COVID-19 pandemic has been politicized and essential public health measures have been questioned or ignored partly because of the fear of some over the idea that the government is taking away their liberties. Donald Trump is in part responsible for the politicization of the crisis as he did things like encouraging people to “liberate Michigan” over the public health restrictions put in place within that state.[15] It was indeed Donald Trump who continued to fan the flames of fear and the result of that has been an outbreak that never seems to stop getting worse.
With an understanding of history, Donald Trump is evidently not the first demagogue and is certainly not going to be the last. In a democratic government, where the rule rests upon the people, demagogues who end up being elected can very much take society down the wrong paths. As such, citizens need to be engaged with political issues and events for a democratic society to be healthy and function properly. Without a sufficient degree of vigilance, a democratic government ultimately becomes fragile and prone to problematic leadership taking hold. It may always be appealing for some to throw their support behind leaders like Trump and Cleon because of how satisfying their points seem to be but the making of societal decisions without any regard to facts, morals, or principles will eventually lead to unintended consequences.
Notes
[1] Donald John Trump, “The Inaugural Address,” last modified January 20, 2017, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/the-inaugural-address/
[2] Sarah B. Pomeroy et al., A Brief History of Ancient Greece: Politics, Society, and Culture, Fourth Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020), 188.
[3] Pomeroy et al., A Brief History of Ancient Greece, 194
[4] Pomeroy et al., A Brief History of Ancient Greece, 143-152.
[5] Pomeroy et al., A Brief History of Ancient Greece, 235-236
[6] Pomeroy et al., A Brief History of Ancient Greece, 236
[7] John Nash, “Sea Power in the Peloponnesian War,” Naval War College Review 71, no. 1 (2018): 119-127, accessed October 25, 2020, doi: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=nwc-review
[8] Thucydides, The History Of The Peloponnesian War, trans. Richard Crawley (n.p.: Dukes Classics, 2012), 233
[9] Thucydides, History Of The Peloponnesian War, 258-259
[10] Thucydides, History Of The Peloponnesian War, 259-265
[11] Thucydides, History Of The Peloponnesian War, 261
[`12] Anthony Rivas, “Trump’s language about Mexican immigrants under scrutiny in wake of El Paso shooting,” ABC News, August 4, 2019. https://abcnews.go.com/US/trumps-language-mexican-immigrants-scrutiny-wake-el-paso/story?id=64768566
[13] Thucydides, History Of The Peloponnesian War, 260
[14] Ilja R. Pavone, “The Paris Agreement and the Trump Administration,” Journal of International Studies 11, no. 1 (2018): 35-37, accessed November 1, 2020, doi: 0.14254/2071-8330.2018/11-⅓
[15] Kevin Liptak. “Trump tweets support for Michigan protestors, some of whom were armed, as 2020 stress mounts,” CNN Politics, May 1, 2020.
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