Sample sentences for DEMAGOGUE

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Definition

someone who appeals to the passions and prejudices of others rather than appealing to their reason — typically a political leader

Demonizing minorities is a common tool of the demagogue.

A thoughtful education is the best armor against demagoguery.
Our demagogues have pandered to the fears and weaknesses of the American rather than to their virtues and strengths.
Mackubin Thomas Owens on National Review Online -- http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=NjdlZGZhMWFjMjY4YmJhZjkyM2U0NmQxY2RiMjMxZmQ= (retrieved 06/29/06)
Some historians have called Sen. McCarthy a demagogue for playing on people's fears of communism.
At the end of the day, the demagogues for this or that scheme will be able to blame the ensuing ill effects on the failure to implement their design to the full extent, rather than its partial adoption.
Michael S. Greve -- Subprime, but not Half-Bad -- http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.19271/pub_detail.asp (retrieved 06/29/06)
...even predatory lending demagogues concede that the extension of subprime credit, to individuals who would otherwise have to turn to loan sharks and pawnbrokers, is generally a good thing.
Michael S. Greve -- Subprime, but not Half-Bad -- http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.19271/pub_detail.asp (retrieved 06/29/06)
Politically, it is profoundly easy to demagogue any climate anomaly into global warming.
Patrick J. Michaels -- How Science Abuses Politics -- http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=2879 (retrieved 06/29/06)
...he's been calling Limbaugh a dishonest demagogue for years now.
Byron York -- Rush's Enemies Pounce, But He Can Prevail -- http://www.nationalreview.com/script/printpage.p?ref=/york/york200310160901.asp (retrieved 06/29/06)
In lobbying for the bill of rights, SAF [Students for Academic Freedom] publicizes horror stories that its chapters gather: ... a law professor proclaiming, "We all know that the 'r' in Republican stands for racist"; and a criminology teacher who asked students on a test to explain why George Bush is a war criminal, and then gave an F to a student who answered that Saddam Hussein, not W, was the monster. Horowitz says that conservative kids have usually just accepted such classroom demagoguery.
Declaration Foundation: Restoring America -- http://www.declaration.net/news.asp?docID=4711&y=2005 (retrieved 06/29/06)
Let them spend the next fifty years poring over the passenger list, trying to figure out which one of them is the great demagogue of the Age of Locke.
Orson Scott Card -- Ender's Game
But the demagogues of Europe have made strange discoveries.
Alexis de Toqueville -- Democracy In America, Volume 1
Conrack discovered that afternoon, much to his dismay, that he had a bit of demagogue in him.
Pat Conroy -- The Water is Wide
Mr. Jones wrote a full and particular account of the dinner, which appeared duly in the Demagogue.
William Makepeace Thackeray -- Vanity Fair
To think that someone like you, who uses such grand words for such shameless purposes, can accuse me of demagoguery.
Thomas Mann -- The Magic Mountain
The Royalists of to-day are demagogues, let us record it to their credit.
Victor Hugo -- Les Miserables
That would make you a demagogue, a windbag.
Mark Helprin -- A Soldier of the Great War
Some of this opposition is, of course, mere envy; the disappointment of displaced demagogues and the spite of narrow minds.
W. E. B. Du Bois -- The Souls of Black Folk
He forthwith adopts one of the candidates thus selected as the only available one, thus proving that he is himself available for any purposes of the demagogue.
Henry David Thoreau -- Resistance to Civil Government
Atticus Finch was right when he said the only good the University did Henry was let him make friends with Alabama's future politicians, demagogues, and statesmen.
Harper Lee -- Go Set a Watchman
He took his seat, with the studied simplicity of a demagogue; though the keen and flashing glance, that he immediately threw around the silent assembly, betrayed the more predominant temper of a tyrant.
James Fenimore Cooper -- The Prairie

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demagogue