@blatham,
First of all, I wrote that Trump is an
imperfect populist. A great many populists have flirted with and embraced demagoguery. Notably, in America, the Know-Nothings and Huey Long were among the latter.
AOC is a populist demagogue and so is Bernie Sanders although his populism is of very recent vintage.
Virtually every candidate for political office attempts to appeal to emotion, prejudice, and ignorance. Distinctions arise when Establishment candidates like Obama, Warren, Harris et al are perceived by the academic and journalistic elite as promoting acceptable emotion, prejudice and ignorance: ie: billionaires are blood-sucking vampires, children will die if the Food Stamps program is modified in any way and the Heartland is filled with pitiful crackers clinging to their guns, God, and racism. When an anti-Establishment candidate (and there are pitifully few who every rise to a level where they attract the scorn of the mandarins) employs this same rhetoric they are labeled "Populists" which in their lexicon is synonymous with a demagogue.
Who are you trying to kid with the implication that you admire William F Buckley? You bring up his name because you must come up with at least one and because he was an intellectual, not a politician. Most importantly, because he is dead. If he were alive today and still writing, I feel confident that he would come under your fire.
Contemporary conservatives (In no particular order)
1) Mike Lee
2) Thomas Sowell
3) Ben Shapiro
4) Bruce Bartlett
5) Clarence Thomas
6) Samuel Alito
7) Jonah Goldberg when he is not succumbing to his desire to be elite
8) Jay Nordlinger
9) Victor David Hanson
10) Madeleine Kearns
I can go on but I can't wait to see what you do with this list.
McConnell, and Lindsey Grapham (sic) for sure Liz Cheney less so but ultimately yes
Antonin Scalia? - Not at all.
Now tells us of your great admiration for any conservative after you have spent a great deal of your time in this forum ranting about the threat of the evil "Movement Conservatism"
