The Necessary, Honorable Thing: Defeat the Demagogue

American Samizdat

José Clemente Orozco (1883 - 1949) – painter (Mexican): “The Demagogue.” Public Domain.

I first published the following essay on Medium, on March 23, 2016, with the subtitle “Denounce Trump.” I republished the essay in the very first weeks of Homo Vitruvius, in early May 2023, when the Substack had precious few readers. I republished it at the start of this American Samizdat project in early July, with the new subtitle “Defeat Trump.” Now, more fully historically than ever, with only four days remaining to Election Day, it is right to pronounce the call more generically, because the battle is perennial, with the names and faces in the end interchangeable: “Defeat the Demagogue.”

I have to repeat, too, what I wrote in July, that in 2024, to invoke honor as a motivator in rousing greater opposition to Trump feels pointless and a little quaint. Still, opposition to a demagogue begins both in basic human decency and in honor, as patriotic citizens of a democratic nation of laws. I retain th…