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Al Sharpton

A Demagogue's Never-Ending Rise

Carl F. Horowitz

In August 2014, a white police officer, acting in self-defense, shot to death an attacker, Michael Brown, a black youth in Ferguson, Missouri. Al Sharpton's rhetoric had much to do with the subsequent local rioting. This was nothing new. He had been applying his patented demagoguery to incidents with racial implications for decades, in his native New York City and elsewhere, under the guise of "justice" and "civil rights."

His many prominent supporters have catapulted him to the apex of American life. President Obama and President Biden regularly solicited his advice. Major corporations continue to donate money to his nonprofit National Action Network. Public sector employee unions fete him.

"Reverend Al" is more subdued and dapper than in his earlier manic days. But that should not be cause for complacency. His proximity to power and regular news media presence make him ever more dangerous in these increasingly radicalized times.