So the art of being a demagogue is not limited to any particular issue set. It can be enlightenment reform, anti-black bigotry or anything in between. Each in its moment appealed to the youth of its time as idealistic.

Rather, the telltale trait of a demagogue is his irrationally dilated ego. Thus, the demagogue eventually, inevitably, sheds his proclaimed ideals for his personal advancement. The genuine hero is prepared to shed his personal advancement for his ideals. Sen. John McCain, for example, stuck with his support of the Iraq war even when we were losing, even if it cost him the election. How quaint. Just like an old man to stand by his principles.

So Napoleon, who condemned the ancient regime for its tyranny, eventually shed his republican principles for his own tyranny.

Of course, most American demagogues are not so expansive in their often-evil entreaties as the foregoing. Americans, being a practical people, are not susceptible to extreme ideas. So most American demagogues simply offer up whatever predilection is current.

Currently, young Americans are in a cynically practical mood stylistically and a greenish, liberal mood substantively. So Obama's constant policy adjustments tend to be admired for their alleged deftness rather than condemned for their obvious cynicism, while his liberal primary positions are presumed to be sincere -- the shifts being carried out just to trick the foolish old people who wouldn't vote for such an obvious liberal.

I leave America's voting-age children with this advice from an old poker player: When you are invited to a new poker game and look around the table for the pigeon but can't spot him, you're the pigeon.