num_pages: 216
description: Noted columnist and online writer, P.M. Carpenter's Political Low Roads: American Demagoguery and the Rise of the New Right argues that a major transformation occurred in the course of twentieth-century demagoguery. Molded in the rhetorical tactics of Southern-demagogue Ben Tillman of South Carolina, this peculiar art form of mass politics spread without regard to region or party. By the middle and late 1970s, however, the once-Old Right of the Republican Party -- inspired by Barry Goldwater's 1964 rhetoric on national "morality" and racial scapegoats; and inspired as well by Joseph McCarthy's rhetoric -- metamorphosed as the "New Right." Through its politicians, think tanks, and well-financed political action committees, the movement spoke as a unified and collective voice, using precisely the same demagogic rhetorical techniques once exploited only by individual politicians. In short, during the twentieth century the practice of demagoguery moved from a personal to party-wide basis.
language: English
title: Political Low Roads: American Demagoguery and the Rise of the New Right
titlecomplete: Political Low Roads: American Demagoguery and the Rise of the New Right
publisher: Ladder Press