According to The Random House Dictionary, a demigod is more than human. He is a deified mortal. Many politicians appear to be demigods when they are campaigning for public office, but once the election is over, they stop acting like that, whether they have won or lost. The true political demigod, on the other hand, has a constellation of permanent characteristics that is unique. 1) He has no history of a stable, consistent work function prior to entering politics. 2) Politics is a substitute for genuine work. 3) His political mission is entirely self-serving to fit his preexisting ideological world view. 4) He has an overriding hatred of and a need to change the established world order with grandiose schemes of a heaven on earth. 5) He is convinced of the infallibility of his belief system. 6) The success of his campaign strategy is based on promising the electorate anything and everything for the sole purpose of gaining power over them.
This strategy is designed to cement a powerful identification of the demigod with the electorate. Once he has succeeded in this strategy, the demigod has attained a godlike stature. He can do no wrong in the eyes of the populace. Demigods can appear on both sides of the political spectrum. In today’s anti-authoritarian society with the marked shift of the political mainstream to the left of center, demigods are likely to appear from the political left. Barack Obama is a recent example of the appearance of a demigod from the political left.
Obama’s choice of work before entering politics was that of a political activist. According to his wife Michelle, Obama was a community activist exploring the viability of politics to make [social] change. ” The solution to every problem,” according to a reporter who studied Obama’s projects, ” was a distribution of government funds.” Until he became a full time legislator in 1996, Obama’s primary focus of work was Acorn, the largest radical organization in the United States. The infallibility of his belief system originates entirely from his highly developed intellect. At the height of his election campaign, he announced: “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” Just prior to his entering the White House, in a moment of candor he said: ” We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” In his election campaign he appealed to the entire electorate and promised that if he were elected president he would finally put an end to the political divisiveness that was tearing America apart. Once elected, however, he did exactly the opposite. He immediately proceeded to ram his socialistic medical agenda (ObamaCare) down the throat of the American people (which he later said will be for the good of everyone) and dramatically increased the authority and spending power of the Federal Government at the expense of the private sector.
Personally, he exhibits overt contempt for American policies internationally and for hard working, decent American people in general. The effect of this attitude is to chastise Americans. An emotional plague tactic, it is an attempt to induce an unconscious sense of guilt and paralysis and to make Americans feel that whatever they are doing is somehow wrong. According to him, Americans have to change their ways. If they would only follow him, President Obama is the one capable of redeeming Americans of their evil past deeds. He is also the only one capable of providing all Americans with an illusion of economic security while, at the same time, making them ever more dependent and under the control of the Federal Government with people like him at the top.
The problem that confronts us is not the political demigod. It is the helplessness of armored people that makes it possible for demigods to regularly appear on the social scene. The political interaction of the demigod with helpless, socially dependent people who are emotionally out of touch with themselves is what enables the demigod to exist.
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Neither Left Nor Right
The Emotional Plague
Charles Konia, M.D. 
Dr. Konia,
I enjoyed your perceptive concise description of the political demigod! The characterological dynamics that you take notice of are indeed presented with an energy and functional ‘authority’ and clarily that I cannot but feel an excitement in response to what you so beautifully, provocatively and effectively present.
Thank you, MB
You’re welcome.