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I am thinking about the current style of public speaking where the speaker addresses many claims and attacks against those who do not agree. All the while pretending to be trying to convince their audience but know full well that their audience is already on board and willing to cheer whatever they say.

Preaching to the choir doesn't capture the negative and aggressive aspects of this rhetorical style.

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    Isn't this just politics? The 'aggressive' style is captured by the term polemics: polemic: a piece of writing or a speech in which a person strongly attacks or defends a particular opinion, person, idea, or set of beliefs [CDO] (I'd make this an answer, but the 'preaching to the choir' constraint is missing.)
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Mar 9, 2017 at 16:16
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    You could call it Trumpism, perhaps.
    – Robusto
    Commented Mar 9, 2017 at 16:18
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    @Robusto: Or you could call it populism. Until about a year ago we just used to call it democracy, but the establishment on both sides of the pond are reluctant to accord that term to the political process now they're not so sure of always winning.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Mar 9, 2017 at 16:23
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    @FumbleFingers: Whatever you call it, it leaves me feeling like a Christian Scientist with appendicitis. At a time when we need reason and reasonability more than ever, what we get is this.
    – Robusto
    Commented Mar 9, 2017 at 16:57
  • @Robusto: Too true. Not that I'd go so far as to endorse Trump, but I can't help feeling that questions like this one are often motivated by a desire to dismiss him with pseudo-intellectual put-downs. Most of the liberal media in the UK gave pretty sneering accounts of his recent "campaign-style" rally in Florida, for example, and they'd love to have slipped in something like the target word here (if it exists). Me, I reserve judgement as regards the bigger picture - I'm willing to suppose he's just a man, and simply needed a bit of a break from being constantly attacked from all sides.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Mar 9, 2017 at 21:39

3 Answers 3

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Demagogue: a political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather than by using rational argument. (In ancient Greece and Rome) a leader or orator who espoused the cause of the common people.

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From Merriam-Webster...

rabble-rouser
one that stirs up the masses of the people (as to hatred or violence) (italics mine)

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    No; the 'preaching to the choir' aspect is missing.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Mar 9, 2017 at 16:21
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    @Edwin Ashworth: Okay - populist rabble-rousing. But in all honesty, I never heard of rabble-rousing being used in contexts where the rabble weren't more than willing to be roused.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Mar 9, 2017 at 16:25
  • Hey – I can alter my vote after changing your whotsit to a hyphen. I was negating the upvote, but someone went further, so I've negated the ... oh whotever. But do you really think you'd get away with calling X, Y, and Z 'rabble-rousers'? Polemicists, maybe.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Mar 9, 2017 at 16:31
  • @Edwin Ashworth: That "whotsit" was simply the exact text as cut and pasted from the MW link, so I'm not sure why you object to it. Personally I think it's actually the establishment who've been most preoccupied with "button-pressing" emotional appeals over the last year or so, but I admit I probably couldn't get away with calling Clinton, NYT, Cameron, etc. "rabble-rousers". They're actually more interested in sedating the electorate than rousing them.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Mar 9, 2017 at 16:46
  • I didn't object to it; it came in handy. But I could change it to an ELU hyphen and change the vote.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Mar 9, 2017 at 16:49
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Perhaps, playing to the gallery!

Wiktionary:

Verb play to the gallery
(intransitive, idiomatic)
To appeal to the least sophisticated parts of an audience in order to obtain maximum approval.

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  • This addresses one aspect. But 'playing to the gallery' has been addressed here before. This question includes the 'aggressive attack on opponents' theme.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Mar 9, 2017 at 22:12

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