tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/trump-rhetoric-33093/articlesTrump rhetoric – The Conversation2023-04-06T12:08:35Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2032182023-04-06T12:08:35Z2023-04-06T12:08:35ZTrump’s latest personal attacks on judges could further weaken people’s declining trust in American rule of law<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519653/original/file-20230405-14-ikcyz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former President Donald Trump arrives at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse on April 4, 2023, before his arraignment. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1250781316/photo/topshot-us-politics-trump-indictment.jpg?s=612x612&w=gi&k=20&c=I3u5rvs60DqqaqFP2vww4C8zLbH9OezJU37hQ-vKRgI=">Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When former President Donald Trump was arraigned in a Manhattan criminal court on April 4, 2023, Judge Juan Merchan warned him to “refrain” from making social media posts that <a href="https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/3934302-judge-warns-trump-to-refrain-from-social-media-posts-that-could-incite-violence/">could incite violence</a> or “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/04/04/trump-judge-threats-violence/">jeopardize the rule of law</a>.” </p>
<p>Hours before his arraignment, Trump <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/judge-warns-trump-social-media-210658480.html">reposted a since-deleted photo</a> that featured him with a baseball bat alongside Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. </p>
<p>After Trump pleaded not guilty and was released from custody, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/trump-threaten-judge-incite-violence-1792620">he attacked Merchan</a> and the judge’s family during a speech at Mar-a-Lago.</p>
<p>This isn’t the first time Trump has criticized those trying to hold him accountable.</p>
<p>He <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/110132429947452820">previously harshly</a> <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/110114627876562286">spoke out against Bragg</a>, the <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/110119997656460229">prosecutor leading</a> the criminal case against him, <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/us-elections-government/ny-trump-hush-money-alvin-bragg-indictment-20230403-wwzgelua6fgfblrm666mqsp7i4-story.html">calling him “corrupt</a>” and a “radical left, Soros backed, district attorney.” </p>
<p>And he has <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/new-york/articles/2023-04-03/who-is-juan-merchan-the-ny-judge-handling-trumps-case">targeted Merchan</a>, claiming that the judge “hates” the former president and that he “strongarmed” one of Trump’s associates into taking a plea deal. </p>
<p>Trump has also questioned the integrity of the <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/110114592721226234">U.S. legal</a> <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/110132429947452820">system</a> itself, writing that it’s “impossible” for him to <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/110114973678557189">get a fair trial</a> in New York City, presumably because the city’s population is <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/metro-area/new-york-city-metro-area/party-affiliation/">heavily Democratic</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Kdr4x8oAAAAJ&hl=en">We are scholars</a> of the <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LSH7a20AAAAJ&hl=en">presidency and U.S. courts</a>. In our 2019 book, “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/president-and-the-supreme-court/128A794F67DD778EC4405DBE7A4DA653">The President and the Supreme Court: Going Public on Judicial Decisions from Washington to Trump</a>,” we studied how presidents talk about court cases in their public statements. </p>
<p>We found that presidents criticize judicial decisions infrequently. And when they do, they tend to respectfully object to the decisions courts make rather than try to undermine their legitimacy or attack individual judges. </p>
<p>Trump, however, is not known to follow norms and does not abide by this one.</p>
<p>Here are three things to know about how Trump’s words regarding his criminal indictment can undermine the rule of law and confidence in the U.S. judicial system.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519651/original/file-20230405-28-owx4wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a dark blue suit is seen lit up with artificial lights as he walks surrounded by several men." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519651/original/file-20230405-28-owx4wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519651/original/file-20230405-28-owx4wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519651/original/file-20230405-28-owx4wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519651/original/file-20230405-28-owx4wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519651/original/file-20230405-28-owx4wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519651/original/file-20230405-28-owx4wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519651/original/file-20230405-28-owx4wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Former President Donald Trump greets supporters at Mar-a-Lago on April 4, 2023, hours after he pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1479878029/photo/former-president-donald-trump-holds-a-press-conference-at-mar-a-lago-after-being-arraigned-in.jpg?s=612x612&w=gi&k=20&c=NiFI-WSiQsV--UL9nduLo2LM-9tra_4fWirN-4_2m7g=">Joe Raedle/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>1. Trump’s attacks are bad for the rule of law</h2>
<p>For a few different reasons, the language Trump uses to criticize those he perceives to be his legal enemies often has racist or sexist undertones and can undermine faith in the U.S. legal system. </p>
<p>Indeed, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/psq.12596">some studies</a> <a href="https://digitalcommons.law.uidaho.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1281&context=faculty_scholarship">suggest that</a> Trump’s attacks on legal and political institutions may do just that. </p>
<p>For instance, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2020.1805389">research demonstrates</a> that public approval of the Supreme Court dropped following Trump’s tweets calling U.S. District Judge James L. Robart a “so-called judge” after he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/04/us/politics/visa-ban-trump-judge-james-robart.html">halted Trump’s travel ban</a> in February 2017.</p>
<p>We think that the country is not well situated to absorb further decreases in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/04/us/politics/donald-trump-constitution-power.html">support for the rule of law</a>. Americans’ faith in legal institutions has dropped dramatically in recent years because of various complex factors, including controversial <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf">Supreme Court decisions</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/4732/supreme-court.aspx#:%7E:text=Line%20chart.,is%20the%20highest%20such%20reading.">Public disapproval</a> of the Supreme Court is at all-time high, with 58% of Americans disapproving of the court as of September 2022. This marks an increase of 18% of <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/4732/supreme-court.aspx">Americans who disapproved of the court</a> from a decade earlier. </p>
<p>Similarly, <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/1597/confidence-institutions.aspx">people’s confidence</a> in the criminal justice system has dropped over the past several years, with 43% of Americans indicating in 2022 they have very little confidence in the way the country handles crime. When former President Barack Obama’s term began in 2009, only 25% of people said the same.</p>
<p>If public support for the rule of law weathers the storm and serves as a check on Trump’s brand of vindictive politics – as it has been on past <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/no-blank-check/0FE4E2FC0D017DC70566FDFE94B89007">abuses of presidential power</a> – then American legal institutions will prevail. </p>
<p>But if Trump’s relentless, aggressive attacks convince large swaths of the public that he is being unfairly treated, this may lead to their questioning all kinds of other legal decisions. The end result may be a further drop in confidence in the rule of law, at least among Trump’s supporters. </p>
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<h2>2. These attacks can be dangerous</h2>
<p>Physical threats on judges and other court personnel are at an <a href="https://www.usmarshals.gov/sites/default/files/media/document/PUB-2-2021-Annual-Report.pdf">all-time high</a>. </p>
<p>Some of this increase can be linked to Trump’s time in the White House, if not his behavior directly. Over the course of his presidency, the U.S. Marshals Service <a href="https://www.usmarshals.gov/sites/default/files/media/document/PUB-2-2021-Annual-Report.pdf">reports</a> that inappropriate communications and threats against judges, prosecutors and other protected persons increased by about 50% – from 2,847 in 2017 to 4,261 in 2020. </p>
<p>Robart received <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/seattle-federal-judge-recalls-deluge-of-threats-after-striking-down-trump-travel-ban-in-2017/">a wave of threats</a> after he granted a restraining order against Trump’s travel ban in 2017 and Trump tweeted about Robart. In response to Trump’s public attacks, Robart’s personal information was leaked on the internet and the judge received more than 100 <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2019/08/as-threats-intensify-judges-urge/">death</a> <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/federal-judge-threats-attack-60-minutes-2021-05-30/">threats</a>.</p>
<h2>3. Trump’s criticisms are in a league of their own</h2>
<p>When both Republican and Democratic presidents have criticized legal decisions they <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/president-and-the-supreme-court/128A794F67DD778EC4405DBE7A4DA653">don’t like</a>, they have generally followed a common playbook. Typically, presidents express respect for the judicial branch and the rule of law and explain their disagreement. They do not single out people and resort to personal attacks.</p>
<p>President Bill Clinton, who <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/04/03/1167662256/past-presidents-while-never-indicted-have-faced-legal-woes-of-their-own">faced indictment</a> for lying to a grand jury in 1998, followed this playbook when he took responsibility for his “personal failure” during an <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-the-nation-testimony-before-the-independent-counsels-grand-jury">address to the nation</a>, and referred questions about the investigation to his lawyers. Although he opposed an independent prosecutor, he never criticized the prosecutor’s legitimacy. </p>
<p>Conversely, Trump <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/his-own-words-presidents-attacks-courts">routinely violated this norm</a> by <a href="https://www.law.com/nationallawjournal/2019/11/07/this-is-not-normal-us-judge-denounces-trumps-attacks-on-judiciary/?slreturn=20230305120716">personally attacking individual judges</a> and courts instead of expressing principled disagreements about their decisions based on a different understanding of law. </p>
<p>His propensity to attack the legal system even predates his presidency. </p>
<p>In 2014, he tweeted that the South African judge in the Oscar Pistorius case was “<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/donald-trump-vs-carl-pistorius-selfrighteous-trump-brands-judge-masipa-a-moron-over-pistorius-sentencing-9808850.html">a moron</a>.” Pistorius, an accomplished runner, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34993002">was found guilty</a> of murdering his girlfriend. </p>
<p>During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump used racially tinged language <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/his-own-words-presidents-attacks-courts">when attacking</a> the judge set to overhear the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/source-trump-nearing-settlement-in-trump-university-fraud-cases/2016/11/18/8dc047c0-ada0-11e6-a31b-4b6397e625d0_story.html">fraud trial of Trump University</a>. Trump claimed that District Judge Gonzalo Curiel would be biased against him because <a href="https://www.npr.org/2016/06/07/481140881/who-is-judge-gonzalo-curiel-the-man-trump-attacked-for-his-mexican-ancestry">he was of Mexican descent</a> and Trump was planning to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. </p>
<p>Given Trump’s long history of these type of vicious personal attacks on members of the legal community, it seems unlikely that we will see a radically different Trump now that he faces criminal charges for the first time in his career. </p>
<p>While this may help <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/3932960-trump-attorney-touts-fundraising-numbers-get-yourself-indicted-and-you-raise-a-lot-of-money/">Trump raise</a> <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/04/04/fake-mugshot-donald-trump-fundraising/11600725002/">more money</a> for his presidential campaign, it may cost the country some faith in the rule of law, while putting legal officials in danger.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203218/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Presidents have historically criticized judicial decisions. But Trump is taking it a step further with potentially dangerous personal attacks on judges.Paul M. Collins Jr., Professor of Legal Studies and Political Science, UMass AmherstMatthew Eshbaugh-Soha, Professor of American Politics, University of North TexasLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1886312022-08-15T18:09:40Z2022-08-15T18:09:40ZGOP ‘message laundering’ turns violent, extremist reactions to search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago into acceptable political talking points<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479151/original/file-20220815-19-n7qmyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Supporters of former President Donald Trump rally in Bedminster, N.J., on Aug. 14, 2022. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/supporters-of-former-president-of-the-united-states-donald-j-trump-picture-id1242508358?s=2048x2048">Kyle Mazza/Andalou Agency via Getty Images </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>After the FBI <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/13/trump-mar-a-lago-search/">completed a lawful search</a> of former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on Aug. 8, 2022, conservative politicians responded with one of three strategies: <a href="https://cowboystatedaily.com/2022/08/10/wyoming-reacts-to-fbis-raid-on-trump-estate-cheney-goes-silent/">silence</a>, <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/3595121-mcconnell-calls-for-thorough-and-immediate-explanation-of-mar-a-lago-raid/">circumspection</a> and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/republicans-lash-justice-department-fbi-searches-trumps-mar-lago-home-rcna42139">attack</a>.</p>
<p>Many responses echoed Trump’s own framing of the search. In his <a href="https://saveamerica.nucleusemail.com/amplify/v/XeHZxcJVhW">Aug. 8 message he claimed</a> his residence was “under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents.” In the statement, replete with war metaphors, Trump alleged that executing a legal warrant was “the weaponization of the Justice System” and an “assault” that “could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries.”</p>
<p>Trump’s framing of the event was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/08/trump-fbi-search-reaction/">quickly echoed by most Republican politicians</a> commenting immediately on Twitter, despite the fact that they, like Democrats and the public, lacked relevant knowledge of the facts of the case that prompted the search and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/12/trump-warrant-release/">seizure of classified documents</a>. </p>
<p>The impulse to hastily legitimize Trump’s perspective illustrates a dangerous rhetorical strategy frequently employed by GOP politicians during the Trump era: <a href="https://ncpolicywatch.com/2021/05/24/message-laundering-how-the-far-right-is-getting-its-dirty-work-done-at-unc/">message laundering</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479149/original/file-20220815-19-l6mly9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A white man in a blue suit stands on a stage with the words 'Governor De Santis' lit up behind him. He throws a hat into an audience of people." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479149/original/file-20220815-19-l6mly9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479149/original/file-20220815-19-l6mly9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479149/original/file-20220815-19-l6mly9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479149/original/file-20220815-19-l6mly9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479149/original/file-20220815-19-l6mly9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479149/original/file-20220815-19-l6mly9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479149/original/file-20220815-19-l6mly9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at a conservative student summit in Tampa on July 22, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/florida-gov-ron-desantis-tosses-hats-into-the-audience-as-he-takes-picture-id1410363357?s=2048x2048">Joe Raedle/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Conditioned to accept violence</h2>
<p>Message laundering occurs when inflammatory language and/or unsubstantiated claims are mixed with mainstream partisan communication and presented to the public with an air of respectability. Just as <a href="https://medium.com/@alacergroup/from-the-laundromat-to-wall-street-a-history-of-money-laundering-c6a5407e785c">money laundering</a> enabled mobsters to disguise their ill-gotten gain as the profits of a legitimate business, message laundering presents dishonest and dangerous speech as credible, innocuous or persuasive.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.libarts.colostate.edu/people/karrin/">political communication scholar</a>, I study how rhetoric strengthens or erodes democratic institutions. The aftermath of the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago search illustrates how message laundering can undermine democratic processes and gradually condition its audience to expect and accept violence.</p>
<p>After Trump released his statement, conservative politicians echoed key aspects of his message. Some sanitized Trump’s ideas by combining them with more measured critique or references to democratic processes. </p>
<p>House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., <a href="https://twitter.com/GOPLeader/status/1556807790433271809">decried</a> an “intolerable state of weaponized politicization” in the Justice Department, even as he promised to “follow the facts” and “leave no stone unturned” if the GOP retook the House. <a href="https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Democrats-slam-McCarthy-over-response-to-FBI-raid-17362251.php">Democrats</a> interpreted his directive to Attorney General Merrick Garland, “preserve your documents and clear your calendar,” <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/3593582-mccarthy-threatens-to-probe-garland-after-trump-fbi-raid/">as a threat</a>. But the tweet launders Trump’s notion of a weaponized Justice Department by combining it with McCarthy’s promise to use democratic processes to “follow the facts.”</p>
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<img alt="Tweet from Kevin McCarthy" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479046/original/file-20220814-41084-g64qfl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479046/original/file-20220814-41084-g64qfl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=787&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479046/original/file-20220814-41084-g64qfl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=787&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479046/original/file-20220814-41084-g64qfl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=787&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479046/original/file-20220814-41084-g64qfl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=989&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479046/original/file-20220814-41084-g64qfl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=989&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479046/original/file-20220814-41084-g64qfl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=989&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Twitter.com</span></span>
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<p>Similarly, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem recycled Trump’s war metaphors in <a href="https://twitter.com/KristiNoem/status/1556793510229065728">her tweet</a>, saying, “The FBI raid on President Trump’s home is an unprecedented political weaponization of the Justice Department.” She tempered that imagery, however, by appealing to the rule of law in the same tweet, asserting that “using the criminal justice system in this manner is un-American.”</p>
<p>Not all of the GOP’s early statements were measured, however. Some laundered more extreme ideas and edged readers toward an acceptance of violence.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://twitter.com/RonDeSantisFL/status/1556803433939755010?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">tweet</a> sent the night of the search, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis labeled the search a “raid” and described it as “another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime’s political opponents.” He continued, saying, “Now the Regime is getting another 87k IRS agents to wield against its adversaries? Banana Republic.”</p>
<p>DeSantis’ invocation of “the Regime” legitimizes a fringe <a href="https://compactmag.com/article/they-can-t-let-him-back-in">notion peddled</a> by Michael Anton, a right-wing commentator and member of Trump’s administration. Anton speculates that Democratic elected officials would work in concert with members of the Biden administration, liberal judges and the media – who, together, form “the regime” – to prevent Trump from taking office again using legal or illegal means. </p>
<p>DeSantis referenced a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2022/08/11/irs-to-add-87000-new-agents-more-crypto-tax-enforcement/?sh=7c1de1963213">budgetary item included in the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act</a> that would allocate “$80 billion to the IRS.”</p>
<p>McCarthy also referred to that aspect of the bill, <a href="https://twitter.com/GOPLeader/status/1557088624499429377?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1557088624499429377%7Ctwgr%5E6d810e9beb50025f698719555b690d1a69a69cec%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.politifact.com%2Ffactchecks%2F2022%2Faug%2F11%2Fkevin-mccarthy%2Fkevin-mccarthys-mostly-false-claim-about-army-8700%2F">alleging</a> a “new army of 87,000 IRS agents” are “coming for” American taxpayers. <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/aug/11/kevin-mccarthy/kevin-mccarthys-mostly-false-claim-about-army-8700/">Politifact</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/11/hyperbolic-gop-claims-about-irs-agents-audits/">The Washington Post</a> debunked the notion. Yet Republicans <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/3594879-gop-rails-against-irs-funding-in-inflation-reduction-act/">repeatedly made that argument</a>.</p>
<h2>‘Gestapo’ and ‘brown shirts’</h2>
<p>The imagery of an “army” of federal agents turned against ordinary Americans via legislative mandate legitimized the alarmist rhetoric that followed. As GOP tweets coalesced, the line item from the Inflation Reduction Act merged with reports of the Mar-a-Lago search in ways designed to make individual voters feel vulnerable.</p>
<p>Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., <a href="https://twitter.com/Rep_Clyde/status/1557054031125778433">tweeted</a>, “If they weaponize the FBI to go after President Trump, they will surely weaponize the IRS’s 87,000 new agents to go after you.” </p>
<p>The GOP members of the House Judiciary Committee <a href="https://twitter.com/JudiciaryGOP/status/1556791214875328515">tweeted</a>, “If they can do it to a former President, imagine what they can do to you.” Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., <a href="https://twitter.com/laurenboebert/status/1556845893332205569">tweeted</a>, “This #DepartmentofInjustice must be held accountable. It was President Trump today, but it’s you next if we don’t take a stand.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Tweet from Rep. Lauren Boebert" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479047/original/file-20220814-59179-whppmy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479047/original/file-20220814-59179-whppmy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=624&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479047/original/file-20220814-59179-whppmy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=624&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479047/original/file-20220814-59179-whppmy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=624&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479047/original/file-20220814-59179-whppmy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=784&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479047/original/file-20220814-59179-whppmy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=784&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479047/original/file-20220814-59179-whppmy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=784&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Twitter.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After making audiences feel personally threatened, GOP messaging returned to the war posture implied in Trump’s original statement. </p>
<p>Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., <a href="https://twitter.com/RepMTG/status/1556783786976845824">tweeted</a> that the FBI “raiding President Trump’s home” was the “type of things that happen in countries during civil war.” Conservative pundits and politicians cast FBI agents as “<a href="https://twitter.com/jacobkornbluh/status/1556806316445802502">Gestapo</a>” and “<a href="https://twitter.com/DrPaulGosar/status/1556790609213546496">brown shirts</a>,” the latter referring to Hitler’s storm troopers. In an interview on Fox News, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., <a href="https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1556990717951713280">exclaimed</a>, “This should scare the living daylights out of America citizens” and compared the U.S. federal government to the Nazis, the Soviet Union and Latin American dictatorships.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479144/original/file-20220815-13-g4bf10.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A tweet that says 'Tomorrow is war. Sleep well.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479144/original/file-20220815-13-g4bf10.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479144/original/file-20220815-13-g4bf10.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479144/original/file-20220815-13-g4bf10.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479144/original/file-20220815-13-g4bf10.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479144/original/file-20220815-13-g4bf10.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479144/original/file-20220815-13-g4bf10.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479144/original/file-20220815-13-g4bf10.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A tweet sent by a conservative commentator on the evening of the day former President Trump announced the FBI had searched his Florida home.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://twitter.com/scrowder/status/1556830994354905094?s=20&t=ItwCMIgFWMy9VQfb8V_gcQ">Twitter</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What’s next, #CivilWar?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41939743">Communication scholars</a> have <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Demagoguery_and_Democracy.html?id=61ZeDgAAQBAJ">observed</a> that once political opponents are cast in those terms, democratic remedies are insufficient. The opponent must be destroyed, and violent repercussions seem reasonable. </p>
<p>A Bloomberg newsletter <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2022-08-10/fbi-raid-at-mar-a-lago-quickly-sparks-social-media-narratives">noted</a> that during the week of Aug. 8, the #CivilWar hashtag gained traction on various platforms, reflecting a “war-time mentality (that) has become increasingly common since it’s started to find footing with politicians.” </p>
<p>The Texas Nationalist Movement issued <a href="https://tnm.me/news/tnm-news/statement-on-the-federal-raid-of-the-trump-residence/">a statement</a> citing the “raid” on Mar-a-Lago, the “weaponization and politicization of federal instruments of power” and the “announcement of the hiring of 87,000 IRS agents” as grounds for Texas to secede. </p>
<p>During the week that followed the Mar-a-Lago search, FBI <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/12/fbi-threats-trump-search/">officials reported</a> numerous instances of individuals threatening FBI field offices, with some confrontations ending in violence. On Aug. 12, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security released a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/fbi-dhs-warn-threats-federal-law-enforcement-spiked-wake-mar-lago-sear-rcna43024">joint bulletin</a> documenting an increase in violent threats to law enforcement and other government officials.</p>
<p>Message laundering does not always result in politically motivated violence, but it can make violence seem like a logical and reasonable response to partisan disagreement. Voters should be aware of this rhetorical tactic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188631/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karrin Vasby Anderson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Threats to law enforcement have risen in the aftermath of the FBI raid on former President Trump’s Florida estate. Does ‘message laundering’ by top GOP figures have something to do with it?Karrin Vasby Anderson, Professor of Communication Studies, Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1524832021-01-15T13:21:13Z2021-01-15T13:21:13ZHow Trump’s language shifted in the weeks leading up to the Capitol riot – 2 linguists explain<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378909/original/file-20210114-16-xx0z5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=593%2C568%2C4979%2C3099&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Trump addresses a crowd in Dalton, Georgia, on Jan. 4, the night before the state's U.S. Senate runoff.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-donald-j-trump-speaks-in-support-of-republican-news-photo/1230444469?adppopup=true">Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Jan. 6, the world witnessed how language can incite violence. </p>
<p>One after another, a series of speakers at the “Save America” rally at the Ellipse in Washington redoubled the messages of anger and outrage.</p>
<p>This rhetoric culminated <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/09/three-key-factors-that-drive-far-right-political-violence-two-that-dont/">with a directive</a> by the president to go to the Capitol building to embolden Republicans in Congress to overturn the results of the 2020 election.</p>
<p>“Fight like hell,” President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/10/us/trump-speech-riot.html">implored his supporters</a>. “And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/12/us/capitol-mob-timeline.html">Shortly thereafter</a>, some of Trump’s supporters breached the Capitol. </p>
<p>Throughout his presidency, Trump’s unorthodox use of language <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/two-linguists-use-their-skills-to-inspect-21-739-trump-tweets/">has fascinated linguists and social scientists</a>. But it wasn’t just his words that day that led to the violence.</p>
<p>Starting with <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?506975-1/president-trump-statement-2020-election-results">a speech he made on Dec. 2</a> – in which he made his case for election fraud – we analyzed six public addresses Trump made before and after the riot at the Capitol building. The others were <a href="https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-rally-speech-transcript-dalton-georgia-senate-runoff-election">the campaign rally</a> ahead of the runoff elections in Georgia, <a href="https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-speech-save-america-rally-transcript-january-6">the speech</a> he made at the “Save America” rally on Jan. 6, the videotaped message that aired later that same day, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/07/us/politics/video-trump.html">his denouncement of the violence on Jan. 7</a> and <a href="https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trumps-first-comments-since-capitol-riots-says-he-wants-no-violence">his speech</a> en route to Texas on Jan. 12.</p>
<p>Together, they reveal how the president’s language escalated in intensity in the weeks and days leading up to the riots.</p>
<h2>Finding patterns in language</h2>
<p>Textual analysis – converting words into numbers that can be analyzed as data – can identify patterns in the types of words people use, including their syntax, semantics and vocabulary choice. Linguistic analysis can reveal latent trends in the speaker’s <a href="https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/31333">psychological, emotional and physical states</a> beneath the surface of what’s being heard or read.</p>
<p>This sort of analysis has led to a number of discoveries.</p>
<p>For example, researchers have used it to identify the authors of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2283270?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">The Federalist Papers</a>, the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2017/08/22/545122205/fbi-profiler-says-linguistic-work-was-pivotal-in-capture-of-unabomber">Unabomber manifesto</a> and a novel written by <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-a-computer-program-helped-show-jk-rowling-write-a-cuckoos-calling/">J.K. Rowling under a pseudonym</a>.</p>
<p>Textual analysis continues to offer fresh political insights, such as its use to advance the theory that social media posts attributed to QAnon are actually written by <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/qanon-is-two-different-people-shows-machine-learning-analysis-from-orphanalytics-301192981.html">two different people</a>.</p>
<h2>The ‘official’ sounding Trump</h2>
<p>Contrary to popular thinking, Trump does not universally use inflammatory rhetoric. While he is well known for his <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/11/14238274/trumps-speaking-style-press-conference-linguists-explain">unique speaking style</a> and his once-frequent social media posts, in official settings his language has been quite similar to that of other presidents. </p>
<p>Researchers have noted how <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0163853X.2015.1010191">people routinely alter their speaking</a> and writing depending on whether a setting is formal or informal. In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17467586.2015.1038286">formal venues</a>, like the State of the Union speeches, <a href="https://rogerkreuz.com/SOTU.png">textual analysis</a> has found Trump to use language in ways that echo his predecessors.</p>
<p>In addition, a <a href="https://businessfinancing.co.uk/leader-vocabulary/">recent study</a> analyzed 10,000 words from Trump’s and President-elect Joe Biden’s campaign speeches. It concluded – perhaps surprisingly – that Trump and Biden’s language was similar. </p>
<p>Both men used ample emotional language – the kind that aims to persuade people to vote – at roughly the same rates. They also used comparable rates of positive language, as well as language related to trust, anticipation and surprise. One possible reason for this could be the audience, and the persuasive and evocative nature of campaign speeches themselves, rather than individual differences between speakers. </p>
<h2>The road to incitement</h2>
<p>Of course, Trump has, at times, <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-inaugural-speech-is-it-morning-or-mourning-in-america-71656">used</a> <a href="https://www.vox.com/21506029/trump-violence-tweets-racist-hate-speech">overtly dire and violent language</a>.</p>
<p>After studying Trump’s speeches before the storming of the Capitol building, we found some underlying patterns. If it seemed there was a growing sense of momentum and action in his speeches, it’s because there was.</p>
<p>From early December to early January, there was an increase in the use of words that convey <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X09351676">movement and motion</a> – terms like “change,” “follow” and “lead.” </p>
<p><iframe id="RLCy4" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/RLCy4/5/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>This is important, because it signals that the undertone of the speeches, beyond the overt directives, was goading his supporters to take action. By contrast, passive voice is often used to distance oneself from something or someone. In addition, research on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167203029005010">linguistic indicators of deception</a> has found that people who are lying often use more motion words. </p>
<p>We also looked at Trump’s use of presidential language during the same time frame. Researchers have identified the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2006.01.006">hallmark features of presidential language</a>. These include using more articles – “the,” “an,” “a” – prepositions, positive emotion, long words and, interestingly, swear words. </p>
<p>Trump used the most presidential language <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnSNvtqUuqc">in the video recorded the day after the riots</a>, in which he denounced the violence, and in his Dec. 2 election fraud speech. His other four speeches more closely match the level of presidential language reflected in his State of the Union speeches. </p>
<p><iframe id="4Pbve" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/4Pbve/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>The violence at the Capitol building and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/01/13/us/trump-impeachment">impeachment of the president</a> have only added fuel to a contentious period marked by a pandemic, an economic crisis, widespread protests over racial inequality, a heated presidential election and citizens divided over real and fake news.</p>
<p>In this context, the role of language to calm, reassure and unify is more important than ever – and in this task, Biden has a steep challenge ahead of him. </p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152483/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leah Cathryn Windsor was PI on a Minerva Initiative project funded by the Department of Defense. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roger J. Kreuz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The president’s language sounded less presidential and more inflammatory in the weeks leading up to the riots.Roger J. Kreuz, Associate Dean and Professor of Psychology, University of MemphisLeah Cathryn Windsor, Research Assistant Professor, University of MemphisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1532772021-01-13T18:25:29Z2021-01-13T18:25:29ZHow Donald Trump’s populist narrative led directly to the assault on the US Capitol<p>The January 6 assault on the Capitol may have been a fitting end to Trump’s presidency. It was the embodiment of his trademark violation of norms and desacralization of institutions. It was also the logical culmination of four years of violently partisan rhetoric. </p>
<p>Donald Trump is of course less the cause but rather the natural expression of a populism run amok, and one for which Ross Perot, Pat Buchanan, Sarah Palin and the Tea Party movement were the harbingers. Still, he is an impressive – and appalling – expression of American populism. As the only representative elected by all Americans, the US president has both institutional and rhetorical power given his unique media exposure. The “commander-in-chief” is also the “storyteller-in-chief.” His January 6 <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-supporters-prior-the-storming-the-united-states-capitol">“Save America” speech</a> is a perfect illustration of the way a populist narrative can sway the masses. It is essential to understand its mechanism and to recognize its characteristics if we want to prevent a repeat.</p>
<h2>Turning the crowd into “the people”</h2>
<p>Populism is a complex and contested political concept. It is nevertheless identifiable by certain characteristics. First, of course, it often involves some form of demagoguery, a rhetorical device that Donald Trump masters perfectly, as rhetoric professor Jennifer Mercieca <a href="https://www.tamupress.com/book/9781623499068/demagogue-for-president/">has shown</a>. “You’re stronger, you’re smarter. You’ve got more going than anybody,” he told his audience on January 6. He also praised the crowd’s pride and supposed patriotism, calling out “a deep and enduring love for America in our hearts […] an overwhelming pride in this great country.” But flattery in itself does not define populism.</p>
<p>As political scientist <a href="https://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15615.html">Jan-Werner Müller</a> has demonstrated, what characterizes populism is above all a very restrictive and exclusive definition of “the people.” In his <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/inaugural-address-14">inaugural speech</a>, President Trump contrasted the “forgotten people” with a corrupt elite. When he addressed his supporters on January 6, he said: “You are the real people” which he defined as “the people that built this nation”, and contrary to “the people that tore down our nation”. Trump’s “American people” are also the people who “do not believe the corrupt fake news anymore”.</p>
<p>As used by Trump, “the people” is both a rhetorical construction and an embodied metaphor found in phrasing like “the incredible patriots here today” and “the magnitude of the crowd” stretching “all the way to the monument in Washington.” For the president, size is a sign of moral virtue: “As this enormous crowd shows,” he says, “we have truth and justice on our side.” </p>
<p>As many observers have noted, Trump is obsessed with crowd size. One of the very first lies from his spokesperson regarded the size of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/06/donald-trump-inauguration-crowd-size-photos-edited">2016 inauguration crowd</a>, how it was bigger than Obama’s in 2009, despite clear evidence to the contrary. This was the first of thousands of “alternative facts” that came to define Trump’s presidency.</p>
<h2>A victimized people</h2>
<p>Another characteristic of Trump’s “people” is their victim status. They are the victims of a corrupt system and the “fake news media”. He also makes a link between “the country that has had enough” and a <em>we</em> who will “not take it any longer” because “that’s what this is all about.” Trump’s people identify with him through this victimization. Hence the use of the subject pronoun <em>we</em>. “It’s incredible what <em>we</em> have to go through” he laments, building a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09557571.2019.1575796">cognitive bias</a> that favors adherence to his <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims-database/">numerous falsehoods</a>.</p>
<p>Victimization is an essential element of the populist discourse. It emphasizes the innocence and the purity of the people (and their leader). It makes any future action, even illegal, morally justifiable. “When you catch someone in the act of fraud,” said the president, “you’re allowed to follow very different rules.” In other words, it gives a blank check for illegal actions that will happen next.</p>
<h2>An inner enemy</h2>
<p>This rhetoric of victimization is also illustrated by the construction of the figure of an enemy who is no longer a foreign outsider but fellow Americans, as I have analyzed thoroughly <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/angles/498">elsewhere</a>.</p>
<p>In Trump’s “Save America” speech, this enemy is primarily the news media. They “suppress speech,” and even “thought”. They are the “enemy of the people” and “the biggest problem we have in this country”. The expression “enemy of the people” is not new: it has its origins in the Roman Republic and was used during the French Revolution. But there is a certain irony in Trump using a term made particularly popular by the Soviet Union while comparing the suppression by the media to “what happens in a communist country.” </p>
<p>This view of the “enemy press” echoes that of Richard Nixon, as outlined in a recent <a href="https://arizonastatelawjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Jones_Pub.pdf">article by RonNell Andersen Jones and Lisa Grow Sun</a>. But Trump is much more vehement in his public attacks. And the enemies he mentioned are not limited to the press: he also attacked the “big tech” who “rigged the election,” the Democrats and the “radical left” that will “destroy our country,” the Republicans such as Mitch McConnell, Bill Barr, and Liz Cheney who refused to back his false claims, or the Supreme Court that “hurts our country”.</p>
<h2>An existential threat</h2>
<p>The populist discourse also requires the construction of a permanent crisis. The enumeration of numerous enemies leads to an implacable logic: “Our country has been under siege.” This type of war lexicon is all the more effective that the emotional charge is reinforced with the evocation of children:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“They also want to indoctrinate your children at school by teaching them things that aren’t so. They want to indoctrinate your children. It’s all part of the comprehensive assault on our democracy.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This threat of “indoctrination of children” validates the policy in favor of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/12/21/to-trumps-education-pick-the-u-s-public-school-system-is-a-dead-end/">private schools put in place by the Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos</a>. It may also echo QAnon’s conspiracy theories that portray Donald Trump as the hero of a struggle against the “deep state” and a supposed <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/28/politics/qanon-child-welfare/index.html">cabal of Democratic politicians and celebrities baselessly accused of abusing children</a>. But, more generally, what is at stake is the very existence of the nation: “If you don’t fight like hell,” the president warned, “you won’t have a country anymore.” So now, said the president, “the American people [are] finally standing up and saying, "No”.</p>
<h2>Virtuous strength versus shameful weakness</h2>
<p>By standing up and fighting, Trump’s “people” can become heroic. It is common for US presidents to rely on the trope of the hero, a figure whose strength is always kept in check by virtue. Donald Trump presents a very different narrative where heroism is exclusively defined by unchecked strength, to the point that strength is a virtue in and of itself, as I developed previously <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/lisa/9861">in my research</a>. “You have to show strength, and you have to be strong,” he repeated, and members of Congress who promised to oppose the certification of votes became “warriors.”</p>
<p>The claim that “We will not be intimidated into accepting the hoaxes and the lies” is also a way to refuse to be weak. After repeating the term “weak Republicans” several times, Trump clearly showed he enjoyed this expression, insisting he was going to use the term from then on.</p>
<p>This binary view of strength vs. weakness echoes a very conservative and gendered narrative that appeals to Donald Trump’s base, especially evangelicals: Trump’s hypermasculinity is contrasted to the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/10/28/928336749/trump-has-weaponized-masculinity-as-president-heres-why-it-matters">Democrats’ enlightened masculinity, portrayed as weak and feminine</a>. An extreme incarnation of this hypermasculinity can be found in the neo-fascist organization <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proud_Boys">Proud Boys</a> present among his supporters. </p>
<p>At the end of his speech, when Trump encouraged his supporters to take action by going to Capitol Hill, he asked the crowd to “give our Republicans – the weak ones, because the strong ones don’t need any of our help […] – the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country”. </p>
<p>As the speech reached its crescendo, Trump emphasized his supporters’ strong emotional bond with him, and his with them. “We’re going to walk down, and I’ll be there with you”, he promised, as if they would be protected by a Christ-like presence that did not even have to materialize – and it didn’t. Instead, as what was now a mob moved toward the Capitol, Trump was driven back to the White House, where he <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-mob-failure/2021/01/11/36a46e2e-542e-11eb-a817-e5e7f8a406d6_story.html">watched the assault unfold on live television</a>. </p>
<h2>The remains of the day</h2>
<p>The tragic events of January 6 and their aftermath are now well known. Five people died, including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/us/who-died-in-capitol-building-attack.html">police officer Brian Sicknick</a>. Despite the violent attack, Congress was able to reconvene and formally recognize the victory of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice-president-elect Kamala Harris. But the risk was grave and the wounds deep.</p>
<p>All of this was made possible by Donald Trump ability and willingness to heighten and take advantage of his supporters’ sense of exclusion (economic, social or otherwise), fear of cultural and identity dispossession, and distrust toward US institutions. Trump’s populist narrative and coded language gave them a feeling of empowerment and encouraged them to imagine that a violent attack on Congress would be a patriotic, heroic act.</p>
<p>After the violence on Capitol Hill, Trump’s approval rating has fallen sharply, <a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/">yet remains at 38%</a> (though a new <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/01/15/biden-begins-presidency-with-positive-ratings-trump-departs-with-lowest-ever-job-mark/">Pew Research poll puts him at 29%</a>). By comparison, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/09/25/how-the-watergate-crisis-eroded-public-support-for-richard-nixon/">Richard Nixon’s was 24%</a> when he resigned in 1974. If Trump’s popularity among those who voted for him has also declined, it is still close to 80%, and about one in five Republicans (<a href="https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/oakpejbjqvr/Topline%20Reuters%20Capitol%20Unrest%20Overnight%20Survey%201%2008%202021.pdf">22% according to Reuters-Ipsos</a>, or nearly 15 million Americans) claims to support the rioters’ actions. Most importantly, a significant majority of them continue to believe <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/13/trump-tweets-legacy-of-lies-misinformation-distrust.html">Trump’s endlessly repeated false claims</a> that the election was “rigged” and that it was he who won, not Joe Biden.</p>
<p>With the beginning of a <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-news/house-trump-impeachment-vote-01-13-21/index.html">second impeachment trial</a> against Donald Trump and the <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/14/online-extremists-ignoring-trump-calls-calm-459535">threat of further attacks</a> by his supporters on American institutions and elected officials in Washington and across the nation, as well as a worsening pandemic, the coming weeks and months could prove crucial for American democracy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153277/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jérôme Viala-Gaudefroy ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>In his January 6 speech in Washington DC, Donald Trump urged his supporters to force their way onto Capitol Hill, is a perfect compendium of his inflammatory populist rhetoric.Jérôme Viala-Gaudefroy, Assistant lecturer, CY Cergy Paris UniversitéLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1530742021-01-13T00:49:47Z2021-01-13T00:49:47ZAt impeachment hearing, lawmakers will deliberate over a deadly weapon used in the attack on Capitol Hill – President Trump’s words<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378425/original/file-20210112-23-b0uf4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5717%2C3722&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A video screen displays Donald Trump's face as he prepares to address a crowd of his supporters.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-image-of-president-donald-trump-appears-on-video-screens-news-photo/1230450967">Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Five days after supporters of President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/arts/television/capitol-riot-graphic-videos.html">attacked the Capitol building</a>, the House of Representatives introduced a <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/trump-impeachment-effort-live-updates/2021/01/11/955631105/impeachment-resolution-cites-trumps-incitement-of-capitol-insurrection">single article of impeachment</a> against the president. </p>
<p>The article accuses Trump of incitement of insurrection for his continued propagation of lies and conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, as well as his <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/us/politics/trump-speech-capitol.html">violent rhetoric</a> immediately preceding the attack on Capitol Hill. The article contends that Trump’s lies and rhetoric directly led to violence with the goal of undermining the counting of electoral votes. </p>
<p>The president, says the impeachment article, “willfully made statements that, in context, encourage – and foreseeably resulted in – lawless action at the Capitol, such as: ‘if you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore.’”</p>
<p>Impeachment proceedings that consider incitement to insurrection are rare in American history. Yet dozens of legislators – including some <a href="https://www.adn.com/politics/2021/01/08/alaska-sen-lisa-murkowski-calls-on-president-trump-to-resign-questions-her-future-as-a-republican/">Republicans</a> – say that Trump’s actions leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol contributed to an attempted insurrection against American democracy itself.</p>
<p>Such claims against Trump are complicated. Rather than wage direct war against sitting U.S. representatives, Trump is accused of using language to motivate others to do so. Some, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2021/jan/12/donald-trump-impeachment-insurrection-capitol-joe-biden-coronavirus-covid-live-updates">including the president</a>, have countered that the connection between President Trump’s words and the violence of Jan. 6 is too tenuous, too abstract, too indirect to be considered viable. </p>
<p>However, <a href="https://tinyurl.com/reasonedactiontheory">decades of research</a> on social influence, persuasion and psychology show that the messages that people encounter heavily influence their decisions to engage in certain behaviors.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lBH7ql34Ex0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Donald Trump’s speech on Jan. 6 at the “Save America March.”</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How it works</h2>
<p>The research shows that the messages we consume affect our behaviors in three ways. </p>
<p>First, <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2005-04648-005">when</a> <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14792779943000116">a person</a> encounters a message that advocates a behavior, that person is likely to believe that the behavior will have positive results. This is particularly true if the speaker of that message is liked or trusted by the target of the message.</p>
<p>Second, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0093650205275385">when</a> <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ct/article-abstract/13/2/184/4110437">these</a> messages communicate positive beliefs or attitudes about a behavior – as when our friends told us that smoking was “cool” when we were teenagers – message targets come to believe that those they care about would approve of their engaging in the behavior or would engage in the behavior themselves.</p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0002716211423500">Finally, when</a> <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167292181001">those</a> messages contain language that highlights the target’s ability to perform a behavior, as when a president tells raucous supporters that they have the power to overturn an election, they develop the belief that they can actually carry out that behavior. </p>
<p>Consider something we have all encountered in a more lighthearted context – messages designed to motivate exercise. These messages often tell us one (or more) of three things. They tell us that exercise will lead to positive outcomes – “You will get physically fit!” They tell us that others exercise or would approve of our taking part in exercise – “Work out with a friend!” And they tell us that it is within our power to begin an exercise program – “Anybody can do it!” </p>
<p>In this context, these messages are likely to increase the message target’s likelihood of exercising.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, as we saw on Jan. 6, these principles of persuasion apply to less benign behaviors as well.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378434/original/file-20210112-17-edz2dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Members of Congress were forced to evacuate the House Chambers to evade protesters." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378434/original/file-20210112-17-edz2dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378434/original/file-20210112-17-edz2dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378434/original/file-20210112-17-edz2dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378434/original/file-20210112-17-edz2dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378434/original/file-20210112-17-edz2dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378434/original/file-20210112-17-edz2dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378434/original/file-20210112-17-edz2dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of Congress were forced to evacuate the House chambers to evade protesters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-congress-evacuate-the-house-chamber-as-news-photo/1294933192">Drew Angerer/Getty Images via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How Trump did it</h2>
<p>Now let us return to what happened in Washington on Jan. 6.</p>
<p>Even in the weeks before the election, Trump’s rhetoric was belligerent. His campaign solicited supporters to “enlist” in the “<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210111123637/https://www.armyfortrump.com/">Army for Trump</a>” to help reelect him. Following the election and in the lead-up to the attack on the Capitol, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/11/05/president-trumps-false-claims-vote-fraud-chronology/">President Trump made repeated false claims of election fraud</a>, arguing that something needed to be done to remedy the alleged fraud. His language often took an aggressive tone, suggesting that his supporters must “<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/trump-election-voter-fraud-arizona-detroit-b1622400.html">fight</a>” to preserve the integrity of the election. </p>
<p>By inundating his supporters with these lies, Trump made two key beliefs acceptable to his followers. First, that aggression against those accused of trying to undermine his “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2016/12/11/505182622/fact-check-trump-claims-a-massive-landslide-victory-but-history-differs">victory</a>” is an acceptable and useful means of political action. Second, that aggressive, possibly violent attitudes against Trump’s political adversaries are common among all his supporters. </p>
<h2>Words have consequences</h2>
<p>In the weeks following the election, allies of President Trump, <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/giuliani-calls-trial-combat-d-180408746.html">including Rudy Giuliani</a>, <a href="https://weartv.com/news/local/gaetz-defends-president-trump-suggests-antifa-could-be-behind-us-capitol-attack">Republican U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz</a>, GOP Sens. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/10/capitol-attack-republican-senators-josh-hawley-ted-cruz-face-resign">Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley</a> and others, only reinforced these beliefs among Trump supporters by perpetuating his lies. </p>
<p>With these beliefs and attitudes in place, Trump’s <a href="https://factba.se/transcript/donald-trump-speech-campaign-rally-the-ellipse-january-6-2021">Jan. 6 speech outside the White House</a> served as a key accelerant to the attack by sparking the raucous crowd to action. </p>
<p>In his pre-attack speech, Trump said that he and his followers should <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/10/us/trump-speech-riot.html">“fight like hell” against “bad people</a>.” He said that they would “walk down Pennsylvania Avenue” to give Republican legislators the boldness they need to “take back the country.” He said that “this is a time for strength” and that the crowd was beholden to “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/10/us/trump-speech-riot.html">very different rules</a>” than would normally be called for. </p>
<p>Less than two hours after these words were spoken, violent insurrectionists and domestic terrorists breached the Capitol. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>In the case of Donald Trump, the relationship between words and actions never seems clear. But make no mistake, there is a scientifically valid case for incitement.</p>
<p>Decades of research have demonstrated that language affects our behaviors – words have consequences. And when those words champion aggression, make violence acceptable and embolden audiences to action, incidents like the insurrection at the Capitol are the result.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153074/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kurt Braddock receives funding from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to perform research on the role of disinformation in the performance of far-right domestic terrorism. </span></em></p>Words have consequences. And decades of research supports the contention that Donald Trump’s words could in fact incite people to mount an insurrection at the US Capitol.Kurt Braddock, Assistant Professor, American University School of CommunicationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1468162020-10-13T13:25:33Z2020-10-13T13:25:33ZAppealing to evangelicals, Trump uses religious words and references to God at a higher rate than previous presidents<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362786/original/file-20201010-23-a8u26s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C17%2C3976%2C2622&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Reading material or preparing a speech?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-donald-trump-holds-up-a-bible-outside-of-st-johns-news-photo/1216826602?adppopup=true">Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Speaking from the hospital while undergoing treatment for COVID-19, Donald Trump <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-physician-provide-details-about-president-s-covid-19-condition-n1241973">faced the camera and touted therapeutics</a> that “look like miracles coming down from God.”</p>
<p>The choice of words shouldn’t come as a surprise. President Trump has
used religious language at a higher rate than any president from the last 100 years. I know this because <a href="https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/8484/2547">I have analyzed 448 major public addresses</a> by every president from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Trump for their use of both religious terms and explicit references to God. What I found was the current president uses them at much higher rates than any predecessor. Furthermore, his use of religious language has increased during his presidency.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://cerihughes.com/">scholar of political communications</a>, I believe Trump’s evolving use of religion in speeches fits into a strategy to appeal to an important part of his voting base: religious conservatives.</p>
<h2>Evangelical support</h2>
<p>In the 2016 election, Trump won <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/09/how-the-faithful-voted-a-preliminary-2016-analysis/">overwhelming support from the white evangelical</a> community. This in itself was not a shock, as the constituency typically votes Republican. But perhaps more surprising was the fact that he received a higher percentage of the white evangelical vote than <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/09/how-the-faithful-voted-a-preliminary-2016-analysis/">any previous presidential candidate</a>. Meanwhile, despite his <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/203198/presidential-approval-ratings-donald-trump.aspx">low overall approval ratings</a>, white evangelicals have <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2017/12/07/stark-partisan-divisions-over-russia-probe-including-its-importance-to-the-nation/">largely remained loyal in their level of support</a>.</p>
<p>Trump’s policy agenda is largely in line with many white evangelicals’ priorities, such as his support for <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2020-09-25/trump-supreme-court-pick-barrett-known-for-conservative-religious-views">installing conservative justices</a> on the Supreme Court and <a href="https://www.newsday.com/news/nation/president-trump-celebrates-traditional-values-with-conservatives-1.14453564">promoting the evangelical worldview</a> of the “traditional” family.</p>
<p>Yet, while his agenda in these areas no doubt accounts for much of this continued loyalty, his communications have also played an important role.</p>
<h2>Tweeting the God word</h2>
<p><a href="https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/8484/2547">My research</a> suggests that President Trump seems to have developed a rhetorical style to appeal to this constituency.</p>
<p>To examine how Trump compares with his predecessors in terms of the language he uses, I looked at the frequency of 111 religious words and phrases established by <a href="https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/isbn/0195326415/">previous researchers</a> to have, religious – specifically Christian – meaning. These included “pray,” “church” and “bless” and also variations of each term such as “prayer,” “praying” and “prayers.” </p>
<p>Within this list were specific “God” terms which consisted of nine explicit references to the Christian God: for example “God,” “Lord” and “Supreme Being.”</p>
<p>In the presidential speeches I examined, Trump used 7.3 religious terms per thousand words of speech – far higher than any other president from the last 100 years. In fact it was more than double the average rate of 3.5 terms per thousand used by presidents in general. Similarly, explicit mentions of “God” by Trump came at a rate of 1.4 per thousand words – almost three times the average of 0.55. </p>
<p>The average length of presidential speeches in the archive was around 3,000 words, with each speech containing on average 10 religious terms and one or two specific mentions of God. Trump’s speeches were similar in length but contained on average 22 religious terms and four mentions of God.</p>
<p><iframe id="EyfPJ" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/EyfPJ/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>President Trump also has the speech with the highest rate of use of religious terms: an address following a 2017 <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-the-shootings-las-vegas-nevada">Las Vegas mass shooting</a>. That national address contained 52 religious terms per thousand words – although I would note that it was a short speech, only 754 words long. Other presidential speeches following national tragedies – such as the 1986 Challenger disaster, Hurricane Katrina and the deaths of previous presidents – had a relatively high rate of nine religious terms per thousand words. Yet Trump’s Las Vegas speech is still over five times the average rate for these types of national addresses.</p>
<p>I <a href="https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/12691/3220">also examined</a> Trump’s main form of campaign communications: rally speeches and tweets. Looking for the same religious terms and “God” variants, I reviewed 175 rally speeches from June 2016 up to the November 2018 midterms and more than 30,000 tweets from @realDonaldTrump dating from 2009 to November 2017, when Twitter changed the character limit allowed on its messages.</p>
<p>I found that in the 2016 primary campaign, there was almost no religious language in his speeches. Notably, for example, he did not use the almost obligatory presidential speech conclusion asking God to “bless America.” But once he became the official Republican nominee, he sharply increased his use of religious language, and has maintained that high frequency into his presidency.</p>
<p>Interestingly, in speeches in states <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/02/29/how-religious-is-your-state/">with a more religious population</a> he used significantly more religious language than in more secular states. In the most religious states, such as Mississippi and Texas, Trump used on average 1.7 religious and 0.36 God terms per thousand words. In the least religious states, like New Hampshire and Maine, these figures were 1.2 and 0.24.</p>
<p><iframe id="YIJu8" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/YIJu8/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Trump’s prolific tweeting yields some interesting insights. Prior to his inauguration, citizen Trump used just 1.2 religious terms and 0.19 God terms per thousand words in tweets. Yet, President Trump tweets at a rate of 3.2 religious terms and 0.60 God terms per thousand words of tweets – triple his previous rate.</p>
<p>It is unknown how much of Trump’s speeches are written by him personally and how much are simply ad-libbed. Similarly, we don’t know with certainty which tweets are written by Trump personally and which by his staff – a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/07/09/739906562/u-s-appeals-court-rules-trump-violated-first-amendment-by-blocking-twitter-follo?t=1601302947323">2017 First Amendment case</a> confirmed that Trump writes most but not all of his tweets. Whatever the truth, both forms of communication are presented as coming from President Trump.</p>
<h2>Finding his faith?</h2>
<p>My data shows that President Trump has significantly changed how he uses religious language in communications.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Why this is the case is unclear. Some supporters, such as evangelical leader James Dobson, argue that Trump is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/26/us/politics/a-born-again-donald-trump-believe-it-evangelical-leader-says.html">finding his faith</a>. And it could be that these findings reflect an increasing importance of religion to Trump personally.</p>
<p>Cynics may argue that my data are more reflective of how politically important to him the religious right community is.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146816/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ceri Hughes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Trump uses more religious terms in his set-piece addresses than any other president in the last 100 years.Ceri Hughes, Knight Research Fellow of Communication and Civic Renewal, University of Wisconsin-MadisonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1455752020-09-03T18:13:32Z2020-09-03T18:13:32ZDonald Trump’s heroic fantasy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356372/original/file-20200903-18-gtr728.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C2%2C1497%2C783&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Donald Trump in front of Mount Rushmore in Keystone, South Dakota, July 3, 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Saul Loeb/AFP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On July 3 and 4, US president Donald Trump gave two major speeches, first at <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-south-dakotas-2020-mount-rushmore-fireworks-celebration-keystone-south-dakota/">Mount Rushmore</a> and then at the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-2020-salute-america/">White House</a>. In them he focused not on the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/virus-rages-us-economy-struggles-sustain-recovery-n1238693">struggling US economy</a>,
the <a href="https://apnews.com/bcab5f132b190c5c2b61a750cce33343">soaring unemployment rate</a>,
or the raging <a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fcases-updates%2Fcases-in-us.html#cases">Covid-19 pandemic</a>, but on statues and the purported mortal danger of the left. In his speeches, the president used the word “hero” a total of 24 times, and announced an executive order to create a brand-new monument called the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Garden_of_American_Heroes">“National Garden of American Heroes”</a>.</p>
<p>These speeches were praised by Trump’s supporters, particularly the first – the <a href="https://humanevents.com/2020/07/10/the-mount-rushmore-speech-was-president-trumps-best-ever/">“best speech of his political career”</a>, a <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/07/president-trump-mount-rushmore-speech-triumph/">“triumph”</a> and a <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/president-trumps-most-important-speech-opinion-1515721">“profound speech”</a>. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, never shy of rhetoric, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/president-trumps-most-important-speech-opinion-1515721">claimed</a> that it would make Donald Trump </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“as essential to the preservation of freedom in America for the 21st century as President Abraham Lincoln was in the 19th century and President Ronald Reagan was in the 20th century”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>On the face of it, this was one of the occasional performances that earn Trump the term <em>presidential</em>: he didn’t go off script, he praised the Founding Fathers and he appealed to America’s core value of freedom. </p>
<p>But while both speeches evoked culture and identity by tapping into the tradition of glorifying presidential heroes, Trump also stoked fear by referencing the sometimes violent protests following the <a href="https://theconversation.com/police-violence-in-the-united-states-what-lies-behind-the-bad-apples-narrative-139931">May 25 death of George Floyd</a>. One goal was clearly to change the conversation <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/as-statues-of-founding-fathers-topple-debate-rages-over-where-protesters-should-draw-the-line/2020/07/07/5de7c956-bfb7-11ea-b4f6-cb39cd8940fb_story.html">away from the Confederacy</a> and its leaders to appeal to still-persuadable suburban conservative voters. For <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/07/05/trumps-mount-rushmore-speech-showed-why-our-battle-over-history-is-so-fraught/">all of its controversy</a>, and even because of it, Mount Rushmore was the perfect backdrop.</p>
<h2>The hero: a vehicle for conservate values</h2>
<p>Despite the use of the heroic narrative by <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442205604/Honored-Guests-Citizen-Heroes-and-the-State-of-the-Union">all presidents since Ronald Reagan</a>, democrats or republicans, it is inherently conservative. Its moral is that solutions to problems – even political ones – depend on extraordinary individuals, not on collective action. </p>
<p>It often tends to promote patriotism and nostalgia for an idealized era (the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greatest_Generation">“Greatest Generation”</a>). It makes sacrifice for the homeland seem noble and heroic, thanks to metaphors of moral accountability. Trump remarked that “we pay tribute to generations of American heroes whose names are etched on our monuments and memorials” and have to be “worthy of their sacrifice.” Heroes are most often defined by the way a society sees its male and female ideals – in this case, favoring action and physical courage over diplomacy and compromise. Heroes exemplify what <a href="http://www.wwcd.org/issues/Lakoff.html">linguist George Lakoff</a> identified as a “strict father” type as opposed to the more liberal model of a “nurturing parent.” Trump engaged this conservative idea of the hero when he said,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Our children should be taught to love their country, honor our history, and respect our great American flag.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another important aspect of the heroic narrative is its binary structure. The “we” versus “they” is an illustration of the greater battle between good versus evil. There is no gray area and no room for nuance: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The patriots who built our country were not villains. They were heroes whose courageous deeds improved the Earth beyond measure.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In this worldview, moral relativism threatens to diminish the true heroic narrative:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Every virtue is obscured, every motive is twisted, every fact is distorted, and every flaw is magnified until the history is purged and the record is disfigured beyond all recognition.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>A threatening American “Other”</h2>
<p>Heroes exist in adversity. They are an idealized vision of a “Self” that stands against a threatening “Other.” In presidential discourse, national heroes help define national identity. President Trump’s heroes, however, face a different enemy – other Americans. <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/president-trumps-most-important-speech-opinion-1515721">Newt Gingrich</a> praised this gambit, calling the Mount Rushmore speech </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“the clearest statement against a domestic threat to American freedom ever given by a modern national leader”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This process of “Othering” citizens of the United States is similar to what candidate Trump did with immigrants in 2016. He activated the trope of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-trumps-america-immigrants-are-modern-day-savage-indians-99809">“violent savage”</a>, a familiar American enemy, by calling out the “angry mobs” that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities […] the radical left, the Marxists, the anarchists, the agitators, the looters [and the] left-wing cultural revolution”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The point is of course to stoke fear. Trump conflates the “liberal democrats” with “totalitarianism” so as to make it “alien to our culture and our values”, in the same way as a candidate in 2015 and 2016 he conflated immigrants with the gang violence of MS-13. Somehow, “Sleepy Joe” Biden is going to plunge America into hellish, apocalyptic future.</p>
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<h2>Culture is identity</h2>
<p>Heroes, monuments and statues are expressions of a particular cultural identity. The right may have political power, but the left has enormous cultural power. The right has ceded ground on nearly all the major cultural issues of the culture wars since the 1960s – race, gay rights, immigration, secularism. The losses have <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/4f60f812-730e-471c-9804-82d35a543ba2">hurt deeply</a> and, rightly or wrongly, many conservatives feel besieged by progressive forces. It is a view shared by Attorney General William Barr, who said in an <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-william-p-barr-delivers-remarks-law-school-and-de-nicola-center-ethics">October 11 speech</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“This is not decay; it is organized destruction. Secularists, and their allies among the ‘progressives’, marshaled all the forces of mass communications, popular culture, the entertainment industry, and academia in an unremitting assault on religion and traditional values. These instruments are used not only to affirmatively promote secular orthodoxy but also drown out and silence opposing voices, and to attack viciously and hold up to ridicule any dissenters.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In Barr’s remarks, “organized destruction” suggests intent to harm. Once motives are impugned, there is no more good-faith argument to make. Everything becomes a political weapon, including a <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/how-fox-news-helped-turn-masks-another-culture-war-flashpoint">piece of cloth</a>. A mask meant to save lives becomes an assault on personal freedom.</p>
<h2>Redeeming shame and humiliation</h2>
<p>Drawing on affect theory, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14791420.2019.1667503">Donovan Schaefer</a> and <a href="https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745337913/under-the-cover-of-chaos/">Lawrence Grossberg</a> have argued that what unifies Donald Trump’s [white] followers is not a particular economic or conservative policy but rather a deep sense of humiliation and shame over the loss of cultural hegemony. They share with Donald Trump “the terror of the humiliation of being a victim,” which he drew on in his speech:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Those who seek to lie about the past in order to gain power in the present […] want us to be ashamed of who we are [and] their goal is demolition.” (July 4)</p>
<p>“They think the American people are weak and soft and submissive […] [and want] Americans to forget our pride and our great dignity.” (July 3)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Even the president’s foreign policy is about shame and humiliation:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We want to be respected by the rest of the world, not taken advantage of by the rest of the world, which has gone on for decade after decade.” (July 4)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>When he insults and humiliates their shared enemies, Trump has given these “forgotten Americans” a sense of redemption by promising to “make [their] America great again” by breaking the new cultural norms and by giving aggrieved whites a sense of revenge. Ultimately, he has turned the presidential bully pulpit into a bully’s pulpit. But the very things that shock mainstream and progressive media and, frankly, most Americans, is what makes Trump look like a savior in the eyes of his hard-core supporters.</p>
<h2>Donald, the fake hero</h2>
<p>Newt Gingrich called out the shared enemies after Trump’s performance on July 3. The president, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/president-trumps-most-important-speech-opinion-1515721">he wrote</a>, has stood “defiantly in defense of those values despite the ridicule and hostility of the elites, news media, academics.” The next day Trump called himself a protector who “will preserve our history, our heritage, and our great heroes” (July 3) and “defend, protect, and preserve American way of life” (July 4).</p>
<p>As I <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/lisa/9861">have written elsewhere</a>, the heroic myth is ultimately about power and virtue, power being kept in check by self-restraint and submission to civic duty. Donald Trump has redefined heroism by making it solely about power. For Trump, “American freedom” is not first and foremost about democracy but about “American greatness.” His frequent Nixonian references to <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-by-the-president-39/">“law and order”</a> are actually about force and power. Many of the terms repeated in his speeches build on these themes: <em>tall, great, greatness, strong, respect, stand up, the flag, men and women in uniform, the Second Amendment, law and order, law enforcement, winning</em>, and so forth.</p>
<p>The difficulty now is that the dissonance between Trump’s rhetoric and reality has been made particularly obvious by Covid-19. Part of the power of the president is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rhetorical_Presidency">rhetorical</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performativity">performative</a>. So it depends on his ability to make the country believe something good about itself. To unify the country would require that the president put himself above the fray and exercise the virtues of restraint as well as compassion and empathy, especially in these times of crisis.</p>
<p>With Trump’s support eroding <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2020/06/30/publics-mood-turns-grim-trump-trails-biden-on-most-personal-traits-major-issues/">even among his once-stalwart base</a>, it’s perhaps time to admit that the strategy that gave him victory in 2016 may very well be his doom in 2020.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145575/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jérôme Viala-Gaudefroy ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>An analysis of Donald Trump’s speech at Mount Rushmore reveals the underbelly of his constant use of heroic rhetoric.Jérôme Viala-Gaudefroy, Assistant lecturer, Université Paris Nanterre – Université Paris LumièresLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1417642020-07-02T12:27:42Z2020-07-02T12:27:42ZWhy ‘I was just being sarcastic’ can be such a convenient excuse<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345103/original/file-20200701-159785-mvvnbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=69%2C96%2C3503%2C2281&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Oh come on, you could tell it was sarcasm ... right?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Election-2020-Canvassing/542b128d592b4c64a00191f13f1362a2/15/0">AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>After President Donald Trump <a href="https://apnews.com/476068bd60e9048303b736e9d7fc6572">said</a> during a rally in June 2021 that increased testing was responsible for the surging number of infections, the condemnation of the <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-nw-cb-trump-tulsa-rally-fact-check-20200621-ufzitovasrgcpkj3aybed3stfe-story.html">inaccurate claim</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/06/21/coronavirus-live-updates-us/">was swift</a>. </p>
<p>Six days later, during a Fox News town hall, Sean Hannity asked Trump about those remarks on increased testing. </p>
<p>“Sometimes I jokingly say, or sarcastically say, if we didn’t do tests we would look great,” he replied. </p>
<p>This seems to be a pattern. Two months earlier, the president had mused about the beneficial effects of injecting disinfectants into the body to combat COVID-19. After many health officials expressed their dismay, Trump <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephaniesarkis/2020/04/24/trump-now-claims-sarcasm-on-disinfectant-and-injections-comments/">repeatedly claimed that he was just being sarcastic</a>.</p>
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<p>That same month, after he misspelled “Nobel Prize” in a tweet – writing it out as “Noble Prize” – <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-twitter-nobel-prize-biden-deepfake-coronavirus-a9485251.html">he deleted the tweet</a> before falling back on on a familiar excuse: sarcasm.</p>
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<p>What is it about sarcasm that makes it such a convenient excuse for people who are trying to distance themselves from what they’ve said?</p>
<p>As I describe in <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/irony-and-sarcasm">my book</a> on irony and sarcasm, most cognitive scientists and other language researchers think of sarcasm as a form of verbal irony. Both ways of speaking involve saying the opposite of what you mean. But the goals of irony and sarcasm are actually different.</p>
<p>For example, if someone slowly intones “What beautiful weather!” on a cold and rainy day, it’s clear they’re speaking ironically about a disappointing state of affairs. In general, irony is used to provide commentary on unexpected and negative outcomes. </p>
<p>Sarcasm, on the other hand, is most frequently used to disparage the actions of other people. If someone tells you that you’re a real genius after you forgot to meet them for an important appointment, they clearly don’t mean that you’re mentally gifted. Simply put, irony is commentary, but sarcasm is criticism.</p>
<p>That seems straightforward enough. But in actual practice, the line between irony and sarcasm is blurry and confusing. Many people assert they are being sarcastic when they are in fact being ironic, as in the previous example of the weather.</p>
<p>The enlargement of the domain of sarcasm – at irony’s expense – is a linguistic shift that has been going on for some time. In fact, linguist Geoffrey Nunberg <a href="https://books.google.com/books?newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&id=oEliAAAAMAAJ&dq=the+way+we+talk+now+nunberg&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=irony%27s+moving+out">called attention to this phenomenon 20 years ago</a>. So it’s hard to fault the president for conflating the two.</p>
<p>Another element that makes sarcasm tricky to grasp has to do with saying the opposite of what is meant. The recipient of such a statement isn’t supposed to take it literally.</p>
<p>For this reason, when we use verbal irony or sarcasm, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005120109296">we might employ cues to signal our nonliteral intent</a>. We may, for example, speak in a tone of voice that’s slower, lower and louder than how we speak normally. Our pitch may swoop up or down. Ironic statements are also frequently accompanied by facial displays, such as a smirk or the rolling of the eyes.</p>
<p>And that’s why, when being sarcastic over text or email, we’ll <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-sarcasm-so-difficult-to-detect-in-texts-and-emails-91892">use emojis to relay nonliteral intent</a>. Of course, even then, there’s no guarantee that the recipient will interpret the message correctly.</p>
<p>President Trump does, at times, clearly make use of sarcasm. For example, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz_LqxeDEEk">at a December 2019 rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania</a>, he said, referring to the House’s imminent decision to initiate impeachment proceedings, that the Democrats “also understand poll numbers, but I’m sure that had nothing to do with it.” He signals sarcasm by using absolute words like “sure” and “nothing” and by gesturing broadly with both hands. He also pauses to give his audience a moment to interpret his remark as the opposite of what he has said – that, in fact, “my high poll numbers have everything to do with impeachment.” The remark is sarcastic because there’s a clear target: the Democrats in Congress.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tz_LqxeDEEk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Trump gets sarcastic during his Dec. 10, 2019 rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But at both the Tulsa rally and his April press conference, the president’s controversial remarks didn’t have such accompanying verbal and nonverbal cues. He wasn’t being critical of anyone; he was simply asserting that testing leads to more infections, or asking what appeared to be sincere questions about the use of disinfectants to combat the virus. Chances are he literally meant what he said. </p>
<p>[<em>Science, politics, religion or just plain interesting articles:</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-checkoutweekly">Check out The Conversation’s weekly newsletters</a>.]</p>
<p>As the president has repeatedly demonstrated, a claim of intended sarcasm can be used to walk back a remark that has been criticized or otherwise fallen flat. Thanks to our slippery understanding of the term, along with the way sarcasm can be easily missed, it can function like a “Get Out of Jail Free” card: The speaker can take a conversational mulligan and try to make things right.</p>
<p>We’ve all said things that we later regretted and appealed to “just kidding” or “I was being sarcastic.” However, if we habitually reach for such excuses to absolve ourselves of linguistic sins, it becomes, like the little boy who cried wolf, less and less effective.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141764/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roger J. Kreuz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Because sarcasm is often difficult to discern and improperly used, it can operate as a linguistic mulligan. But deploy the excuse too much, and you might raise some eyebrows.Roger J. Kreuz, Associate Dean and Professor of Psychology, University of MemphisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1077612018-12-21T11:41:55Z2018-12-21T11:41:55ZWhat Aristotle can teach us about Trump’s rhetoric<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251772/original/file-20181220-103634-18rnwu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Indiana.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Election-2018-Trump/c632ce2cb7554b7aa883af3beba8a58c/1/0">AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>From Franklin D. Roosevelt’s <a href="https://www.whitehousehistory.org/the-fireside-chats-roosevelts-radio-talks">fireside chats</a> to Ronald Reagan’s reputation as the “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/13/weekinreview/and-yes-he-was-a-great-communicator.html">great communicator</a>” to Barack Obama’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/27/magazine/the-speech-that-made-obama.html">soaring oratory</a> to Donald Trump’s <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/234509/deconstructing-trump-twitter.aspx">Twitter use</a>, styles of presidential communication have <a href="http://www.realclearlife.com/history/short-history-presidential-communication/">varied over time</a>. </p>
<p>But what is similar across all presidents is their ability to create persuasive messages that resonate with large segments of the U.S. population. </p>
<p>Whatever your opinion about Donald Trump, he is highly effective at doing this. The question is why, and how does he do it?</p>
<p>As someone who teaches <a href="https://www.umassd.edu/directory/aarrigo/">rhetoric and communication</a>, I am interested in how people connect with an audience and why a message resonates with one audience but falls flat with another. Whether intentional or not, Trump is using rhetorical strategies that have been around for more than 2,000 years.</p>
<h2>What makes something persuasive?</h2>
<p>There have been <a href="https://www.americanrhetoric.com/rhetoricdefinitions.htm">many definitions</a> of rhetoric over the past two millennia, but at its most basic level it is the practice and study of persuasive communication. It was first developed in ancient Greece, and arose from the need for people to defend themselves in law courts – a brand new invention at the time.</p>
<p>One of the world’s most influential thinkers in this regard was the ancient Greek philosopher <a href="https://www.iep.utm.edu/aristotl/">Aristotle</a>, who lived from 384 to 322 B.C. </p>
<p>Aristotle was a student of <a href="https://www.iep.utm.edu/plato/">Plato</a> and the teacher of <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/Alexander_the_Great/">Alexander the Great</a>. He wrote about philosophy, poetry, music, biology, zoology, economics and other topics. He also famously wrote about <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/rhetoric.1.i.html">rhetoric</a> and came up with an elaborate and detailed system for understanding both what is persuasive and how to create persuasive messages.</p>
<p>To Aristotle, there were <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-rhetoric/#means">three main elements</a> that all work together to create a persuasive message: a person’s use of logic and reasoning, their credibility and their use of emotional appeals.</p>
<p>Aristotle wished that everyone could be persuaded with detailed logical arguments – what he called “<a href="http://rhetoric.byu.edu/Persuasive%20Appeals/Logos.htm">logos</a>.” However, that approach is often tedious, and, frankly, Aristotle felt most people weren’t smart enough to understand them anyway. Facts, documents, reasoning, data and so forth are all important, but those alone won’t win the day. So, he claimed, we need two other things – and this is where Trump excels: credibility and emotion.</p>
<h2>Trump: The credible leader</h2>
<p>Aristotle argues that someone’s credibility – or “<a href="http://rhetoric.byu.edu/Persuasive%20Appeals/Ethos.htm">ethos</a>” – is one of the elements that people find most persuasive. </p>
<p>However, he also said credibility is not a universal trait or feature. For example, a degree from Princeton gives you credibility only to someone else who has heard of Princeton, understands its cultural cachet and respects what it represents. The Princeton degree itself doesn’t give you credibility; it’s the perception of the degree by someone else that’s important.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251773/original/file-20181220-103676-1om3b2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251773/original/file-20181220-103676-1om3b2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251773/original/file-20181220-103676-1om3b2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251773/original/file-20181220-103676-1om3b2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251773/original/file-20181220-103676-1om3b2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251773/original/file-20181220-103676-1om3b2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251773/original/file-20181220-103676-1om3b2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251773/original/file-20181220-103676-1om3b2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Statue of Aristotle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/421724455?src=6ec55nL7wSQwZ4r94f8OUg-1-1&size=huge_jpg">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Aristotle also said that an important feature of credibility is to appear to have the audience’s best interest in mind by sharing and affirming their desires and prejudices, and understanding and amplifying their cultural values. In politics, the person who does the best job of this will get your vote.</p>
<p>So when Trump states that climate change <a href="https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jun/03/hillary-clinton/yes-donald-trump-did-call-climate-change-chinese-h/">is a hoax</a> or that the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/17/business/trump-calls-the-news-media-the-enemy-of-the-people.html">“news media is the enemy of the American people,”</a> what makes that effective for certain audiences has nothing to do with the truthfulness of those statements. </p>
<p>Instead, it’s because he’s channeling and then reflecting the values and grievances of his audience back to them. The closer he gets to hitting the sweet spot of that specific audience, the more they like him and find him credible.</p>
<p>Very often, politicians “evolve” or “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2012/10/03/162103368/how-politicians-get-away-with-dodging-the-question">pivot</a>” from a position that has earned them intense loyalty from a small group to a position they think will resonate with a larger group in order to get more supporters. This works for some people. But that’s not Trump’s strategy. </p>
<p>Instead, he goes all-in with his core supporters, establishing stronger bonds and identifying more closely with that group than someone with a more moderate message would. This also creates extremes on both sides: passionate supporters and intense detractors.</p>
<p>President Trump the communicator, then, has a laser focus on one particular segment of the population. He doesn’t mind if you don’t agree with him because he’s not talking to you anyway. His strategy is to continue nurturing his credibility with core supporters.</p>
<h2>Trump: The emotional leader</h2>
<p>Peppering your credibility with emotional appeals – what Aristotle calls “<a href="http://rhetoric.byu.edu/Persuasive%20Appeals/Pathos.htm">pathos</a>” – is particularly effective. As <a href="http://perseus.uchicago.edu/perseus-cgi/citequery3.pl?dbname=GreekFeb2011&query=Arist.%20Rh.%201408a&getid=1">Aristotle once wrote</a>, “The hearer always sympathizes with one who speaks emotionally, even though he really says nothing.”</p>
<p>Anger, for example, is an emotion that a speaker can provoke in an audience by using real or perceived slights. In <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/rhetoric.2.ii.html">Book 2</a> of his “On Rhetoric,” Aristotle writes that anger is an “impulse, accompanied by pain, to a conspicuous revenge for a conspicuous slight.” He details how an audience will channel their “great resentment” and revel in the “pleasure” of their expectation of “revenge” against those who have wronged them. </p>
<p>In another passage, he writes, “people who are afflicted by sickness or poverty or love or thirst or any other unsatisfied desires are prone to anger and easily roused: especially against those who slight their present distress.” </p>
<p>Using slights to channel and rouse anger is a near daily strategy that Trump has used against the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/05/the-chilling-effect-of-trumps-war-on-the-fbi/561218/">FBI</a>, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/28/business/media/trumps-attacks-news-media.html">news media</a>, the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/17/politics/donald-trump-robert-mueller-government-shutdown-obamacare/index.html">Mueller investigation</a> and other perceived enemies. </p>
<p>Anger over the slighting of one’s “present distress” also helps explain why, for example, Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” comment was such a <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/clinton-trump-deplorables-2016-election_us_59b53bc2e4b0354e44126979">rallying cry</a> for Republicans. They didn’t like being dissed.</p>
<h2>Trump’s language style</h2>
<p>A speaker’s <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-rhetoric/#style">style</a> of language is also important. Trump is very effective with this, too. </p>
<p>Aristotle recommended that a speaker should first identify feelings that their audience already holds, and then use vivid language that resonates with that specific audience to intensify those emotions. Trump has repeatedly put this tactic to work, particularly at his <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/11/george-saunders-goes-to-trump-rallies">rallies</a>. </p>
<p>For example, Trump regularly invokes a familiar adversary, Hillary Clinton, at his rallies. By drawing on his audience’s known animosity toward her and <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/10/11/trump_savors_lock_her_up_chants_at_pa_rallies.html">encouraging them</a> in the “lock her up” chant, calling for her to be <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/358772-timeline-trump-calls-for-clinton-to-be-investigated">jailed</a> and describing her election night loss as “<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/09/07/donald-trump-calls-hillary-clintons-concession-event-funeral/1224620002/">her funeral</a>,” he is using an <a href="https://www.minnpost.com/eric-black-ink/2016/06/comparing-speaking-styles-clinton-and-trump-and-what-it-reveals-about-their-m/">aggressive style</a> of language that reflects and heightens the preexisting emotions of his audience.</p>
<p>The downside is that the more he uses language that is strongly incompatible with other groups, the more they dislike him. But that seems to be something Trump embraces, which only gives him even more credibility with his supporters.</p>
<p>Whether this approach is a smart electoral strategy in the future remains to be seen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107761/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony F. Arrigo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Trump appeals to his base in a way that philosophers knew was effective thousands of years ago.Anthony F. Arrigo, Associate Professor, Writing Rhetoric and Communication, UMass DartmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1020152018-08-24T10:39:16Z2018-08-24T10:39:16ZMichael Cohen’s guilty plea? ‘Nothing to see here’<p>On the afternoon of Aug. 21, when news of Paul Manafort’s conviction and Michael Cohen’s plea deal emerged within hours of one another, the social media channels of Donald Trump’s most vociferous supporters went dark.</p>
<p>The statements of Cohen, Trump’s longtime personal attorney, seemed damaging. </p>
<p>Cohen pleaded guilty to federal charges of campaign finance violations and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/22/politics/michael-cohen-transcript-plea/index.html">swore</a>, under oath, that he acted to prevent “information that would be harmful to the candidate and to the campaign” from reaching the public for the “principal purpose of influencing the election.” In confessing to the federal crimes Cohen also implicated his client, Trump, by saying he committed these crimes at the behest of “a candidate for federal office.” </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/us/politics/trump-manafort-cohen-mueller.html">As a New York Times analysis put it</a>, Cohen’s statement in court “carried echoes of President Richard M. Nixon, who was named an ‘unindicted co-conspirator’ in the special prosecutor’s investigation of Watergate.”</p>
<p>Because of the seriousness of Cohen’s plea, the question wasn’t if Trump and his surrogates would respond, but when.</p>
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<p>Trump and his team <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/us/politics/trump-manafort-cohen-mueller.html">reportedly</a> “spent hours working on a statement” to attempt to clear Trump’s name and reject the “unindicted co-conspirator” label. By the following morning, a messaging strategy seemed to coalesce.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KgYzj5gAAAAJ&hl=en">As a professor of rhetoric and argumentation</a> who is finishing a book about Trump’s presidential campaign, I paid close attention to what Trump’s camp decided to say in his defense.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Z4C-maGgYk0C&pg=PA22&lpg=PA22&dq=apologia+rhetoric&source=bl&ots=5ys5eYUu7N&sig=RQnzxDw-SgHC8mu1mro1QHnA6Zo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwizrpuet4HdAhUFUKwKHcSRBlo4ChDoATADegQIBxAB#v=onepage&q=apologia%20rhetoric&f=false">Apologia”</a> – an Ancient Greek <a href="http://stephanus.tlg.uci.edu/lsj/#eid=13459&context=lsj&action=from-search">term</a> for the speech of self-defense – can assume a few well-known forms. They include: denial (“I didn’t do it”), differentiation (“It wasn’t what you think, it was something else”), bolstering (“Important people approve of what I did, so you should, too”) and transcendence (“Let’s focus on what is really important here – the big picture”).</p>
<p>Trump’s apologia has been primarily based upon denial and differentiation. He wants to persuade Americans that he did nothing wrong and that <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/398606-trump-what-youre-seeing-in-the-news-is-not-whats-happening-inbox-x">things are not what they appear to be</a>.</p>
<p>To buttress this, his defenders relied upon what rhetoric scholars call “<a href="https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/the_writing_process/stasis_theory/index.html">points of stasis</a>,” which are questions that debaters since <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00335637209383109?journalCode=rqjs20">Aristotle</a> have used to develop their most persuasive appeals. </p>
<p>Points of stasis deal with four questions: What happened? How should we understand it? How should we value it? What should we do about it?</p>
<p>In coming up with answers to these questions, debaters will attempt to frame what happened, influence how we should understand it, dictate how we should value it and outline what should be done about it. </p>
<p>When paired with apologia, points of stasis can be used to try to wiggle out of difficult situations. They can help an audience understand new information from the perspective of your side and mitigate damaging charges. </p>
<p>For example, Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, attempted to explain what happened when he <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/michael-cohen-president-trumps-longtime-personal-attorney-reaches/story?id=57310974">released a statement</a> denying that Trump was implicated at all in the Cohen matter. “There is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the President in the government’s charges against Mr. Cohen,” it read, framing the events in a way that vindicated Trump from any wrongdoing. </p>
<p>But, you might wonder, if Trump wasn’t specifically implicated in Cohen’s guilty plea, then how should we understand what happened? Didn’t hush money still get paid to help the campaign?</p>
<p>To shape how observers might make sense of this, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, the author of the book “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=TYBaDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Alan+Dershowitz+impeachment&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmtPuRq4HdAhVSDq0KHQGWB4IQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=Alan%20Dershowitz%20impeachment&f=false">The Case Against Impeaching Trump</a>,” appeared on <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2018/08/21/alan-dershowitz-cnn-scenario-trump/">CNN</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwStH3G6-N0">“Tucker Carlson Tonight”</a> and <a href="http://video.foxnews.com/v/5825323703001/?#sp=show-clips">“Fox and Friends”</a> to argue that everyone commits campaign finance violations – and that campaign finance rules are incomprehensible anyway.</p>
<p>In other words, viewers should realize that this is something really common in politics – an easy mistake to make that shouldn’t be thought of as a big deal.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/08/22/dershowitz_candidate_entitled_to_pay_hush_money_committed_no_election_crime.html">According to Dershowitz</a>, campaign finance violations are trivial infractions like jaywalking. And if hush money were paid, while it’s not exactly noble behavior, it isn’t a crime. Little value, he seems to be saying, should attributed to the crimes – if they were committed at all. </p>
<p>Furthermore, there’s not much that can even be done about it, they say. A sitting president cannot be indicted (and therefore audiences and courts do not get to judge). And <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/media/402991-dershowitz-defends-trump-says-every-campaign-violates-campaign-finance-law">even if it were crime</a>, it isn’t a “high crime,” so it isn’t an impeachable offense.</p>
<p>To recap the points of stasis:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><strong>What happened?</strong> There’s no allegation of wrongdoing by the president in the government’s charges.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>How should we understand Cohen’s guilty plea?</strong> It’s a mere campaign finance violation, which everyone commits.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>What sort of stock should we put into this crime?</strong> It’s like jaywalking. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>What if Trump paid hush money?</strong> Not great, but not illegal.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>What can be done about it?</strong> Nothing. The president can’t be indicted.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>In the days since Cohen’s plea deal, these points of stasis have been repeated to shore up Trump’s denial of wrongdoing and differentiate campaign finance violations from “high crimes and misdemeanors,” the phrase in the Constitution that describes impeachable offenses. </p>
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<p>Of course, this isn’t playing out in a courtroom or in the Athenian Agora. Instead, it’s playing out in the court of public opinion. Impeachment is a political process, and it seems to hinge on whether enough voters get fully behind the effort. </p>
<p>In this sense, one bolstering strategy may resound the most. Trump’s base is so firmly in his camp, some of his backers in the media <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/08/22/storm-clouds-gather-for-gop-as-midterms-approach-but-forecast-isn-t-clear.html">have argued</a>, that this news won’t hurt Trump’s political standing. </p>
<p>It doesn’t really matter if he is an unindicted co-conspirator, they say – because his supporters won’t care. </p>
<p>Trump may have enough support for now to stay afloat. How long he can tread water is unclear.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102015/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Mercieca does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Trump’s surrogates have deployed tried and true rhetorical techniques to defend the president.Jennifer Mercieca, Associate Professor of Communication, Texas A&M UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/903422018-01-22T15:15:45Z2018-01-22T15:15:45ZWhat sort of place is a ‘shithole’? It depends on your gender<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202586/original/file-20180119-80161-843arr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/harrisburg-pa-april-29-2017-president-742366738?src=atoraa-NzIT06pNkwYsMuw-1-53">Shutterstock.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a meeting with lawmakers in January, Donald Trump reportedly complained that the US received too many immigrants from “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42664173">shithole countries</a>” such as “Africa”. His remarks <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/12/unkind-divisive-elitist-international-outcry-over-trumps-shithole-countries-remark">were condemned</a> as racist and offensive by the <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/un-trump-shithole-statement-in-full-united-nations-racist-daca-haiti-african-countries-human-rights-a8155916.html">United Nations</a>, the African Union, the Vatican and world leaders past and present. </p>
<p>For the past two years, we have been studying what the term “shithole” means in a British context, where it’s a common way to denigrate places. Books such as <a href="https://craptowns.wordpress.com/">Crap Towns</a> have made saying mean things about places seem like sport. Online forums provide a space for users engage in what we term “the discourse of denigration” – academic speak for slagging somewhere off.</p>
<p><a href="http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/126408/">Our research</a> was sparked by the simple fact that one sees and hears the term “shithole” on a regular basis in the UK: on the train, in the pub, in the streets or online. But now, in light of Trump’s remarks, the word has taken on a whole new significance – and so have our findings. </p>
<h2>What makes a ‘shithole’?</h2>
<p>We set out to discover what people actually mean when they call a place a “shithole”. In particular, we wanted to know what kind of places they are talking about and who goes around saying this kind of thing. To this end, we collected 2,076 tweets over a 155-day period, which used the term “shithole” or <a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=typd&q=%23shithole">#shithole</a> (yes, there is a hashtag), along with a geotagged location, so that we could mark the places being labelled as “shitholes”, as well as the places where people were tweeting from.</p>
<p>According to our <a href="http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/126408/">research</a>, which has been accepted for publication at the <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1475-5661">Transactions of the Institute of British Geography</a>, there does not appear to be a distinct geography to “shithole” talk. The meanings behind the term are exceptionally varied – a “shithole” could be boring, dirty, populated by people of different races or faiths, poor, or simply the home of a football team you don’t like. </p>
<p>But our study did reveal one remarkable finding: there is a clear gendered difference in how people use the term “shithole” when it comes to places. Men were far more likely to direct their derision at other places, which they were not from – and which they may or may not have visited. A full 83.3% of tweets about other such places came from men. Women, on the other hand, were more likely to direct the term at somewhere they were familiar with: their home town, their house, the bedroom, their street.</p>
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<p>This finding makes sense, given what we know about the way men and women use language. When writing online, men tend to use <a href="http://www.cios.org/EJCPUBLIC/003/2/00328.HTML">authoritative, assertive and challenging language</a>, whereas women are more reflective, defensive and supportive. And while <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563213000368">women tend to write about</a> their own lives, men typically talk about other things. </p>
<p>Our research fits with these trends: in our study, where women directed their attention at areas with which they were familiar and had intimate knowledge, men often directly dismissed entire towns and cities as “shitholes”, while rarely commenting on their own surroundings. </p>
<h2>Toxic masculinity</h2>
<p>Trump uses assertive, challenging language to pit poor, coloured nations against wealthy, white nations (which he clearly sees as superior). Although Trump <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42685356">denies it</a>, there can be little doubt about the <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/15/politics/trump-shithole-analysis/index.html">racist intent of his message</a>. </p>
<p>Yet Trump’s comments can also be viewed as part of the growing problem of “<a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07491409.2017.1346533">toxic masculinity</a>” - defined by psychologists as “<a href="https://ojp.gov/reviewpanel/pdfs_nov06/written-kupers.pdf">the need to aggressively compete with and dominate others</a>”. Our research indicates that his use of the word “shithole” is typical of the way that some men tend to denigrate other places on Twitter. And using this kind of language to assert dominance over other places can have serious consequences. </p>
<p>There is a <a href="https://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/homes/tslater/terstig_handbookurbanstudies.pdf">growing</a> <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=UVESYESgu0sC&pg=PA1868&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false">body</a> <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1475-5661.2011.00490.x/abstract">of scholarship</a>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20800532">which demonstrates</a> the <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/casp.2198/abstract">negative impacts</a> of <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01419870.2011.591406">stigmatising places</a> – especially when it’s done by people in power. Residents of those places face <a href="https://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/homes/tslater/terstig_handbookurbanstudies.pdf">greater prejudice and fewer opportunities</a> in life. And it can prompt interventions which aren’t always good for the people who live there. For example, denigrating housing estates can be a way of <a href="https://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/homes/tslater/terstig_handbookurbanstudies.pdf">justifying regeneration schemes</a> which can lead to <a href="https://theconversation.com/camerons-sink-estate-strategy-comes-at-a-human-cost-53358">residents being displaced</a>, or <a href="https://theconversation.com/grenfell-tower-fire-tragedy-reveals-ugly-flaws-of-regeneration-agenda-79452">worse</a>.</p>
<p>It is comforting to imagine a world where the term “shithole” wasn’t so common as to warrant a hashtag. But in the meantime, we can think twice before referring to a place as a “shithole”, by recognising the impact of this simple word, and the role it plays in larger debates. Since Trump made his comments, there has been an encouraging display of “shithole solidarity”: artists, activists and irate citizens in the United States seem to be looking in the mirror and asking <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/14/politics/trump-hotel-washington-projection/index.html">where the real shithole</a> is.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90342/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How you use the word ‘shithole’ depends on your gender, which paints Trump’s latest misstep as yet another case of toxic masculinity.Alice Butler-Warke, PhD student, University of LeedsAlex Schafran, Lecturer in Urban Geography, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/801652017-07-03T11:46:01Z2017-07-03T11:46:01ZWhy Abraham Lincoln is an icon for Republicans and Democrats alike<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176256/original/file-20170629-16051-10z6u3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4288%2C2848&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">After his assassination, Abraham Lincoln became a beacon of the United States presidency.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/abraham-lincoln-memorial-438577579?src=LPrY8FtakTTChnG7bi8GcQ-1-29">Bethany Moslen/shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>During the 2016 Republican presidential primary, The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward and Robert Costa asked Donald Trump if he could be a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/04/02/transcript-donald-trump-interview-with-bob-woodward-and-robert-costa/?utm_term=.dcc02e35f564">“unifier”</a> like Abraham Lincoln who expressed “‘Malice toward none, charity for all.’” </p>
<p>Trump’s answer was surprising, but the fact that he was asked the question is not. Lincoln has evolved into an <a href="https://www.c-span.org/presidentsurvey2017/">icon</a> of presidential leadership for <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/06/is-abraham-lincoln-the-most-unifying-president-in-us-history/277392/">both sides</a> of the aisle. </p>
<p>In our book, <a href="http://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-07838-0.html">“Memories of Lincoln and the Splintering of American Political Thought,”</a> we studied reminiscences of Lincoln from the time of the president’s death in 1865 through the passing of those who knew him personally in about 1900. We were particularly interested in understanding the rhetorical power of public messages that evoke the living Lincoln.</p>
<p>We believe how Lincoln is remembered by presidents and presidential candidates tells us much about their approach to governance. Trump’s understanding of Lincoln sheds insight, we believe, into the controversies that swirl around the current president.</p>
<h2>Lincoln memories as beacons</h2>
<p>Memories of Abraham Lincoln have served as a <a href="http://www.bnd.com/news/local/article39609789.html">“beacon”</a> for the nation since the hours after his assassination. The night the 16th president was shot, the streets of Washington, D.C. reportedly filled with angry Northerners contemplating revenge against any Southerner suspected in the assassination plot. </p>
<p>Years later, in recounting his memories of that frightful night, Sen. William M. Smith of Nevada credited Lincoln for quelling the storm. The spread of the simple epitaph – <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=-qB1DgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">“What would Lincoln do?”</a> – helped quiet the crowd, Smith claimed, and revealed the force of Lincoln’s memory in beginning to heal a grieving nation.</p>
<p>Lincoln acquaintances like Smith created a cottage industry by publishing their first-person accounts of the Lincoln whom they talked with, walked with, witnessed and heard up close.</p>
<h2>A generation removed</h2>
<p>Subsequent generations used the recollections of the previous generation to keep Lincoln’s memory fresh – and to repurpose his legacy. </p>
<p>U.S. presidents and presidential contenders have been among the most active interpreters of Lincoln memory as they attempt to score political points, bolster their credentials and unify the country during times of <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/95nov/lincoln/lincrite.htm">national turmoil</a>. </p>
<p>Herbert Hoover turned Lincoln into a conservative; Franklin Roosevelt saw him as a progressive. Neither was writing fiction. Some memories of the historical Lincoln – like his journey from a log cabin to the White House – play up his commitment to “self-made” people and inspired entrepreneurial Hooverites. And Lincoln’s commitment to “common” people with simple tastes attracted <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=-qB1DgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">New Dealers</a>. </p>
<h2>Candidates at the altar of Lincoln</h2>
<p>Most presidential candidates genuflect at the <a href="https://www.c-span.org/presidentsurvey2017/">altar of Lincoln</a> when putting forth their presidential bona fides. In 2012, for example, Republican contender Mitt Romney recalled the exalted Lincoln when referring to him as “‘<a href="http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/08/vote-lincoln-in-2012/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0&module=ArrowsNav&contentCollection=Opinion&action=keypress&region=FixedLeft&pgtype=Blogs">The last best hope of Earth</a>.’” </p>
<p>Democrat Barack Obama drew on memories of Lincoln as a mortal man during his reelection campaign against Romney: “<a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/09/06/160713941/transcript-president-obamas-convention-speech">I’m far more mindful of my own failings</a>, knowing exactly what Lincoln meant when he said, ‘I have been driven to my knees many times by the overwhelming conviction that I had no place else to go.’”</p>
<p>Trump used Lincoln to court black votes: “<a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/full-text-trump-227472">Republicans are the Party of Lincoln</a>… Nothing means more to me than working to make our party the home of the African-American vote.” And in the same Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/04/02/transcript-donald-trump-interview-with-bob-woodward-and-robert-costa/?utm_term=.1e4a896f2ad7">interview</a>, candidate Trump called Lincoln “a man…of great intelligence” who did “a very vital thing” for the country. </p>
<p>Seldom known for his humility, Trump admitted he wasn’t likely to outdo Lincoln’s performance: “I can be more presidential than any president…except for Abraham Lincoln… You can’t out-top Abraham Lincoln.” That he took the oath of office with his hand on <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/18/us/politics/lincoln-bible-trump-oath.html?_r=0">Lincoln’s Bible</a> affirmed President Trump’s desire to walk in Lincoln’s shadow. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176265/original/file-20170629-6891-innnsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176265/original/file-20170629-6891-innnsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176265/original/file-20170629-6891-innnsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176265/original/file-20170629-6891-innnsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176265/original/file-20170629-6891-innnsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176265/original/file-20170629-6891-innnsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176265/original/file-20170629-6891-innnsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Obama and Trump are the only two presidents to be sworn in using Lincoln’s Bible.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Andrew Harnik</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet candidate Trump also revealed a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/lincoln-was-a-republican-slavery-is-bad--and-more-discoveries-by-president-obvious/2017/03/22/3360c622-0f2c-11e7-9b0d-d27c98455440_story.html?utm_term=.c5119dde2bbc">lack of historical knowledge</a> about Lincoln. He drew headlines for his repeated claim that few knew <a href="http://transcripts.factcheck.org/remarks-president-nrcc-dinner/">Lincoln was a Republican</a>.</p>
<p>Trump also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/us/politics/trump-andrew-jackson-grave.html?_r=0">deviated</a> from many contemporary presidents by hitching his wagon to Andrew Jackson <a href="http://thehermitage.com/learn/mansion-grounds/slavery/">without seeming to know much about him.</a> Trump reported that Jackson was “really angry” by what “he saw happening with…the Civil War” even though Jackson died 16 years before it began. </p>
<p>In celebrating Jackson’s presidency, Trump offered a backhanded slap to Lincoln by suggesting that he failed to prevent the Civil War. Had “Andrew Jackson been a little later,” Trump suggested, “you wouldn’t have had the <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trump-why-was-there-the-civil-war/article/2621749">Civil War</a>.” </p>
<p>Jackson, like Trump, left a legacy as the <a href="https://millercenter.org/president/jackson/impact-and-legacy">“people’s tribune.”</a> But he defended slavery and owned slaves, and Congress passed just <a href="https://millercenter.org/president/jackson/impact-and-legacy">one piece of legislation</a> during his two terms – the Indian Removal Act of 1830. That Trump displays a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/us/politics/president-trump-white-house.html?_r=0">portrait of Jackson</a> in the <a href="http://ourwhitehouse.org/the-oval-office-the-worlds-most-famous-office/">Oval Office</a> rather than Lincoln shows whose memory <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/316115-trump-hangs-portrait-of-andrew-jackson-in-oval-office">guides his presidency</a>. </p>
<h2>Lincoln’s memory of unity</h2>
<p>Perhaps most unprecedented is the way that Trump answered Woodward and
Costa’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/04/02/transcript-donald-trump-interview-with-bob-woodward-and-robert-costa/?utm_term=.dcc02e35f564">question about unity</a>. Although candidate Trump seemed certain he could “bring great unity” to the country, he seemed more fixated on his ability to provoke “rage” in voters: “I do bring out rage… I don’t know if that’s an asset or a liability.”</p>
<p>Trump gave more attention to <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/28/politics/donald-trump-congress-speech/index.html">the call for unity</a> in his speech before a <a href="http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2017/03/01/cbs-news-poll-trumps-address-to-congress/">well-received</a> <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/02/28/remarks-president-trump-joint-address-congress">Joint Session of Congress</a> on Feb. 28, 2017: “I am here tonight to deliver a message of unity and strength, and it is a message deeply delivered from my heart.” But, his executive orders, Cabinet selections, policy positions, late-night and early-morning tweets have <a href="http://www.latimes.com/projects/grade-the-president/">deepened divisions</a>. </p>
<p>If Trump is serious about promoting national unity, he would do
well to ask himself the same question people did on those dark nights in D.C. after a president’s assassination – “What would Lincoln do?” He would learn that Lincoln was a serious student of history. He <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600/presidents/abrahamlincoln">studied the Constitution</a> and law closely. He surrounded himself with advisers of <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/18/AR2008111803854_3.html">diverse perspectives</a>. He prioritized <a href="http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/oration-in-memory-of-abraham-lincoln/">humility over arrogance</a> and <a href="http://www.abrahamlincolnsclassroom.org/abraham-lincolns-contemporaries/abraham-lincoln-and-william-h-seward/">empathy over revenge</a>. As Trump considers delivering messages of unity to the country on its birthday, he would do well to heed the lessons – and memories – of Abraham Lincoln.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80165/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Even Donald Trump has paid his respects to Lincoln as an emblem of unity.Shawn J. Parry-Giles, Professor of Communication, University of MarylandDavid Kaufer, Mellon Distinguished Professor of English, Carnegie Mellon UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/780222017-05-22T02:05:46Z2017-05-22T02:05:46ZMueller’s threats to resign reveal his character<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170228/original/file-20170521-12231-1byt7p1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former FBI Director Robert Mueller testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington in 2011.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On May 17, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed a special counsel to investigate ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. </p>
<p>The man he chose was James Comey’s predecessor as FBI director, Robert Mueller – a man who once said <a href="http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2068082-7,00.html">he hoped Comey would succeed him</a>.</p>
<p>Mueller <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/history/directors">served longer</a> as FBI director (2001-2013) than any other except J. Edgar Hoover (1924-1972). Since the appointment, Mueller has been described as tough, a former athlete and a decorated Marine officer from the Vietnam War. He’s held positions as U.S. attorney, assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division and, of course, FBI director. Some commentators have said Mueller is <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/05/18/trumps-worst-nightmare-comes-true-215153">Trump’s worst nightmare come true</a>.</p>
<p>From my perspective <a href="http://greaterallegheny.psu.edu/person/douglas-m-charles-phd">as an FBI historian</a>, Mueller’s character was revealed when he threatened to resign twice during his time as FBI director. Comparing his resignation threats with those of J. Edgar Hoover brings them into sharper focus.</p>
<p>The comparison suggests how Mueller will comport himself as a special counsel investigating the president of the United States.</p>
<h2>Mueller’s principles</h2>
<p>In 2004, while Attorney General John Ashcroft was in the hospital, President George W. Bush authorized the <a href="http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/21722">warrantless interception</a> of domestic communications over the objections of the Justice Department. Standing on principle, Mueller, along with Deputy Attorney General James Comey, <a href="http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2068082-2,00.html">threatened to resign</a> if the program’s legal issues were not addressed. </p>
<p>Bush altered the program and Mueller continued on as FBI director. Mueller <a href="http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2068082-2,00.html">reportedly</a> said about it: “There are days that go by, but not many, that you’re not balancing national security against civil liberties.”</p>
<p>Mueller <a href="http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2068082-3,00.html">threatened to resign again</a> in 2006 after the FBI seized the records of Congressman William Jefferson, who was involved in a corruption scandal. Under intense congressional pressure, President Bush ordered the FBI to return the papers. Mueller resisted with a threat of resignation, again on principle – the FBI had seized the records with a valid judge-issued warrant. Bush relented, and Mueller stayed on as FBI director.</p>
<h2>Hoover’s lip service</h2>
<p>Compare these moves with Hoover’s threats to resign as FBI director. In 1940, Hoover’s FBI arrested members of a <a href="http://www.writing.upenn.edu/%7Eafilreis/88/abe-brigade.html">leftist group</a> that had recruited volunteers to fight for the left-wing Spanish government in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). The arrests sparked outrage from the liberal press and liberal Republican Sen. George Norris, a longtime Hoover critic. </p>
<p>The liberal press suggested Hoover’s FBI was akin to the Russian secret police or the Nazi Gestapo. Sen. Norris suggested Hoover was interested only in publicity and spying on Americans. Other critics in Congress even questioned <a href="http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/572_reg.html">Hoover’s competence</a>.</p>
<p>Hoover moved quickly. He sent a message to his boss, Attorney General Robert Jackson, saying he <a href="http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/572_reg.html">was willing to resign</a> if Jackson was unhappy with his leadership, pressuring Jackson to back him.</p>
<p>Hoover well knew his resignation would never be accepted. He had already <a href="https://kansaspress.ku.edu/978-0-7006-2305-1.html">succeeded in generating a significant amount of good press</a> and public support in his 1930s war on celebrated gangsters. Since Hoover had cultivated and maintained a solid based of support, Jackson had little recourse but to publicly support Hoover against the “smear campaign.” </p>
<p>An astute if selfish bureaucrat, Hoover saved his job.</p>
<p>Hoover offered his resignation again in early 1971 after an embarrassing episode in which Hoover leaked information to Congress about an anti-Vietnam War group threatening to sabotage Washington, D.C. utilities. Hoover’s claims went public and forced a rushed FBI arrest of the group’s members. Hoover was then accused of prejudging the perpetrators before any arrests were made and rushing the arrests purely for publicity purposes.</p>
<p>In a storm of bad press, Hoover told President Richard Nixon’s attorney general, Richard Kleindienst, he <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Secrecy_and_power.html?id=BL0EAQAAIAAJ">would resign</a> if he was an embarrassment to the president. But at the time, Hoover was entrenched in his position and far too powerful ever to be removed by any means. Interestingly, the Nixon White House <a href="https://twitter.com/DouglasMCharles/status/862066152918446081">considered</a> replacing Hoover but decided it was untenable. Kleindienst merely reiterated his support to Hoover.</p>
<p>Unlike Hoover, who used resignation threats to preserve his bureaucratic position and reputation, Mueller did it out of a sense of right and wrong. These comparisons tell us much about how Mueller might behave as special counsel. They also tell us Mueller will stick with principle over political pressure. He will likely resist any pressures the Trump administration might exert on him to undermine the investigation of Russian influence on the 2016 presidential election.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78022/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Douglas M. Charles does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How will Mueller perform as special counsel? A historian compares his actions with another former FBI director to find out.Douglas M. Charles, Associate Professor of History, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/759792017-05-19T01:01:13Z2017-05-19T01:01:13ZChild anxiety and parenting in the Trump era<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170007/original/file-20170518-12263-1jigwfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What can parents do to help their children manage the political climate?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Richard Vogel</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Lucy,” a shy, intelligent six-year-old, missed three days of school because she had stomachaches. The symptoms started the day after Lucy witnessed a loud argument while waiting for the bus with her babysitter. A “scary man” shouted at people waiting: “Watch out, you’re all going to be deported now!” Lucy didn’t know what “deported” meant, but she knew it was very bad. People told the man to leave and shouted insults at him that Lucy didn’t understand. The man finally left, shaking his fist and threatening “police action.” Lucy held her babysitter’s hand, looked up and noticed tears in her sitter’s eyes. Lucy’s stomach started to rumble. Sadly, cases like Lucy’s are becoming increasingly common.</p>
<p>I’m a child and adolescent psychiatrist and psychoanalyst with expertise in anxiety disorders. Since November’s election and the general political upheaval that accompanied it, medical professionals across the country have observed <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/25/donald-trump-immigration-deportation-children-doctors">an uptick in agitation and anxiety</a> among our young patients.</p>
<p>What do we know about how anxiety develops in children? And what can parents do to reduce it?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170033/original/file-20170518-12257-fhprh6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170033/original/file-20170518-12257-fhprh6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170033/original/file-20170518-12257-fhprh6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170033/original/file-20170518-12257-fhprh6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170033/original/file-20170518-12257-fhprh6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170033/original/file-20170518-12257-fhprh6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170033/original/file-20170518-12257-fhprh6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170033/original/file-20170518-12257-fhprh6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Children can get swept up in the heat of political rhetoric.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Julie Jacobson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Kids take on the grown-ups’ anxiety</h2>
<p>Strong <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/psychology/social-psychology/emotional-contagion?format=PB&isbn=9780521449489#pAfM0TVKhJatR00Z.97">emotions are contagious</a> – particularly anxiety. And while anxiety spreads easily among us all, children are the most vulnerable. Elementary school children lack a fully developed ability to solve problems on their own, making it difficult for them to separate other people’s worries (especially adults’) from their own frightening fantasies.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, although kids tend to take on their parents’ worries, it can be hard for parents to control anxiety – even in normal times. But these are not normal times: Politicians, the media and ordinary citizens on both sides are hurling heated rhetoric across the aisle, all of which <a href="http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2017/02/why-america-is-so-stressed-out-politics-politics-politics.html">is fueling anxiety</a>.</p>
<p>When upset enough, people can start to think and behave in less rational, more primitive ways. Mental health professionals call this “<a href="http://www.anselm.edu/homepage/dbanach/h-freud-lectures.htm">regression</a>”: when people go from adult, rational behavior to a more emotionally charged, less reasoned way of thinking and acting. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170018/original/file-20170518-12231-1b4j7yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170018/original/file-20170518-12231-1b4j7yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170018/original/file-20170518-12231-1b4j7yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170018/original/file-20170518-12231-1b4j7yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170018/original/file-20170518-12231-1b4j7yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170018/original/file-20170518-12231-1b4j7yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170018/original/file-20170518-12231-1b4j7yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170018/original/file-20170518-12231-1b4j7yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Public displays of politically charged rhetoric seem to be everywhere.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Paul Sakuma</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These days, I’ve personally observed this sort of overly emotional, regressive behavior more and more frequently – often in public places, like on the subway, where people seem more ready than in recent memory to dispense insults.</p>
<p>As a child psychiatrist, I’m concerned when I see emotionally charged language routinely expressed in public discourse, often in the form of intolerance toward those with differing political beliefs or divergent racial/ethnic/sexual orientation backgrounds.</p>
<p>Times of emotional upheaval (and the regressive behavior that accompanies it) can effectively <a href="https://www.adaa.org/living-with-anxiety/children/childhood-anxiety-disorders">terrorize children</a>, causing them to become traumatized, highly anxious or have difficulty sleeping, eating or focusing in school.</p>
<h2>Developmental factors in processing anxiety</h2>
<p>Before third or fourth grade, children haven’t yet formed the rational, organized thought processes that developmental psychologist <a href="http://www.piaget.org/aboutPiaget.html">Jean Piaget</a> called “<a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/concrete-operational.html">concrete operations</a>.” Before reaching this stage of cognitive development, children don’t rely on cause and effect. Rather, magical (nonrational) explanations predominate. Noises in the middle of the night are as likely to come from monsters as heating pipes. The school bus is as likely to appear because they blinked and wished it as because it has a schedule. Conflicts unambiguously feature “good guys” and “bad guys.”</p>
<p>Anxious fantasies can feel as real as the everyday world. For Lucy, who experienced her worries as physical symptoms (stomachaches and even vomiting the next time she got on the bus), it required patience and attention to translate her symptoms back to language so she could feel more in control.</p>
<p>In general, adults rely on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14616730500245906">a routine ability</a> to read their own emotions and those of others. These skills are newly developed in young children and can collapse in scary situations or in the face of parental upheaval. When children become anxious enough, this collapse can <a href="http://www.mbtchild.com/">spiral</a> into an impaired ability to understand the world and a growing sense of isolation.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170019/original/file-20170518-12250-p3z0mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170019/original/file-20170518-12250-p3z0mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170019/original/file-20170518-12250-p3z0mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170019/original/file-20170518-12250-p3z0mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170019/original/file-20170518-12250-p3z0mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170019/original/file-20170518-12250-p3z0mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170019/original/file-20170518-12250-p3z0mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Parent anxiety can turn into child anxiety.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mother-child-hug-637550848?src=-Tf7QGqes-d9uK_b0J1Fxw-1-75">Tofe Allen / Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What can parents do?</h2>
<p>How can parents navigate this <a href="http://time.com/4353606/anger-america-enough-already/">flood tide of personal and community upset</a> and raise relatively healthy kids? Parents always have a hard job, but I’ve seen the aggressive political climate complicate the ever-daunting task of raising children. Parents want to remain truthful to children to underscore trust, while also gauging what children can tolerate hearing without becoming overwhelmed. This can get more difficult when parents feel overwhelmed themselves.</p>
<p>Parents should reflect and reinforce their own values. Lucy’s parents couldn’t pretend that her bus stop incident didn’t happen, didn’t matter or wasn’t frightening. They needed to acknowledge how frightened she felt, while <a href="http://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2016/11/10/parents-talk-to-kids-trump-anxiety">reassuring her</a> that school had not become dangerous.</p>
<p>What parents tell children is important, but <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00207284.1966.11642910">how parents act is also a crucial guide for kids</a>. In today’s political climate, it’s more important than ever for parents to be good role models. That means that values like kindness, patience, respect for others, taking turns and sharing should be developed early and demonstrated often.</p>
<p>Listening to others is crucial, even when we’re angry. Bullying, violence and name-calling are behaviors that parents should take care not to model for their children. (One survey of 2,000 K-12 teachers suggested an <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/20160413/trump-effect-impact-presidential-campaign-our-nations-schools">increase in school bullying</a> during the 2016 election.)</p>
<p>Parents’ roles are more important now than ever. How parents respond in these challenging times can shape <a href="https://www.adaa.org/living-with-anxiety/children-and-teens/tips-parents-and-caregivers/help-your-child-manage-traumatic-">a child’s ability to grow normally or become traumatized</a>. How they channel anxiety and rage makes a difference.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the significant impact parents have on their children’s mental health and well-being may, in turn, be crucial to maintaining a rational society. In my view, this is the small, partial contribution that parents can make to this country’s current upheaval.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170010/original/file-20170518-12266-1j3ti73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170010/original/file-20170518-12266-1j3ti73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170010/original/file-20170518-12266-1j3ti73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170010/original/file-20170518-12266-1j3ti73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170010/original/file-20170518-12266-1j3ti73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170010/original/file-20170518-12266-1j3ti73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170010/original/file-20170518-12266-1j3ti73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Even young kids are participating in the public discourse. What can parents do when things get heated?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Elaine Thompson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75979/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barbara Milrod receives funding from The Clinical Translational Science Center at Weill Cornell Medical College and a Fund in the New York Community Trust established by DeWitt Wallace. Previously funded by two grants at the National Institute of Mental Health and the Brain and Behavior Foundation (NARSAD)
</span></em></p>With emotionally charged rhetoric from both sides of the aisle and many parents in a heightened state of distress, children are more vulnerable than ever to anxiety. What can parents do?Barbara Milrod, Professor of Psychiatry, Medical College, Cornell UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/716952017-01-23T02:34:18Z2017-01-23T02:34:18ZOf boldness: Some rhetorical pointers on Trump’s inauguration address<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153779/original/image-20170123-10226-eqdkwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Donald Trump delivering his inaugural address.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Wonderful like is the case of boldness in civil business: what first? Boldness; what second and third? Boldness,” a philosopher once <a href="http://www.authorama.com/essays-of-francis-bacon-13.html">mused</a>. For: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>there is in human nature generally more of the fool than of the wise; and therefore those faculties by which the foolish part of men’s minds is taken, are most potent.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This philosopher was not talking about the rise and rise of President Donald J. Trump. But he <a href="http://www.bartleby.com/3/1/">might</a> well have been: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Libels and licentious discourses against the state, when they are frequent and open; and in like sort, false news often running up and down to the disadvantage of the state, and hastily embraced; are amongst the signs of troubles … </p>
</blockquote>
<p>It will be interesting in this light to see the reaction of Trump’s alt-right supporters to his Inauguration speech. For, appropriately, it was one of the reality-television-come-<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/scotus-potus-flotus">POTUS’s</a> most restrained performances. </p>
<p>One <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-inaugural-speech-is-it-morning-or-mourning-in-america-71656?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20Weekend%20Conversation%20-%206575&utm_content=The%20Weekend%20Conversation%20-%206575+CID_6f826bd250f1bfb8a03bf5ee85f38a00&utm_source=campaign_monitor&utm_term=Trumps%20inaugural%20speech%20is%20it%20morning%20or%20mourning%20in%20America">function of the inauguration address</a> is for the new President to perform with due dignity the august role he has just assumed. And, although the media has picked up on several darker flashes in the address, Mr Trump was on his best behaviour.</p>
<p>The new President <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-inauguration-speech-transcript-text-full-read-a7538131.html">began</a> almost conventionally. He thanked the Chief Justice and past Presidents present for the occasion. He praised the Obamas’ grace in presiding over the peaceful transition of power: “They have been magnificent, thank you.”</p>
<p>There was no mention of anything being “rigged”. None of anyone being “crooked”. No grabbing. There were no broadsides against the corruption of the media. No specific charges about the corruption of the “elites” (but see below). </p>
<p>After the thank yous, no individual was singled out for Mr Trump’s particular praise or censure.</p>
<h2>Passion and persuasion</h2>
<p>The other key function of this ceremonial address is to set forth the new President’s deliberative vision for his time in office, and to reunite the nation divided by the democratic electoral process.</p>
<p>Many of the most famous Presidential statements in US history have been made in service of this important function. Think JFK’s “<a href="https://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/BqXIEM9F4024ntFl7SVAjA.aspx">ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country</a>.”</p>
<p>Mr Trump and his team will have drawn on all the President-elect’s resources, and those of a team of speech writers, to match or better his predecessor’s celebrated eloquence: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>as the highest dignity is in the people, as the concerns of the republic [sic.] are of the utmost importance … a grand and imposing manner of addressing them seems necessary … (<a href="http://pages.pomona.edu/%7Ecmc24747/sources/cic_web/de_or_3.htm">Cicero</a>)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The greatest persuasive force that an orator can channel on such grand occasions does not lie in the unforced force of the better argument. This is something Donald John Trump well understands. It lies in the ability to arouse the passions of the audience:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>either by exhortation, … or by moving the people to hope, or to fear, or to ambition, or desire of glory … </p>
</blockquote>
<p>So what does a rhetorical analysis of Mr Trump’s inaugural address tell us about his vision, and the emotional bases on which he hopes to animate the “great national effort to rebuild our county and restore its promise for all our people” his opening statement announced?</p>
<h2>American carnage</h2>
<p>You can tell a lot about a writer by her stock of similes and <a href="https://literarydevices.net/metaphor/">metaphors</a>. The great power of pictorial language is to make abstract ideas concrete and memorable, and distant things immediately present to minds’ eyes. </p>
<p>In America’s history, Martin Luther King’s magnificent “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0yP4aLyq1g">I have a dream</a>” address – delivered on the same steps as Trump’s Inaugural address – unfolds in a “mighty stream” of metaphors: financial, architectural, meteorological, geological, even hydrological. “Let justice roll down like water, and righteousness a mighty stream.”</p>
<p>Trump’s speeches, by contrast, tend to be <a href="https://theconversation.com/donald-trumps-chaotic-use-of-metaphor-is-a-crucial-part-of-his-appeal-61383">metaphor-poor</a>. The first metaphor in the inaugural address (there are just eight) is nevertheless striking. Part of the speech’s case for radical reforms, it pictures the American heartland as a post-industrial graveyard: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153781/original/image-20170123-11257-12z070b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153781/original/image-20170123-11257-12z070b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153781/original/image-20170123-11257-12z070b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153781/original/image-20170123-11257-12z070b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153781/original/image-20170123-11257-12z070b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153781/original/image-20170123-11257-12z070b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153781/original/image-20170123-11257-12z070b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tombstones for America: Trump s first image in the Inaugural Address.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The image is in lock-step with Trump’s already-controversial image of the previous decades of American life as “carnage”, an historical bloodbath. </p>
<p>The final metaphor of the speech comparably depicts the United States as so divided as to be reunitable only in blood-letting sacrifice: “It’s time to remember that old wisdom our soldiers will never forget, that whether we are black or brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots.”</p>
<p>It is little wonder then that the first emotion mentioned in the speech is fear. President Trump feels the need to reassure the audience that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is no fear: we are protected and will always be protected by the great men and women of our military and most importantly we will be protected by God.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This appeal to God’s protection stands beside one reference to “destiny” and just one reference to the Bible: a thing unusual in the US, especially for a Republican President. Bland and nonspecific, its recital was also the one moment when Mr Trump’s delivery wavered. The sentiment brought no applause: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The bible tells us how good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity. When America is united, America is totally unstoppable.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>It figures</h2>
<p>This is not to say that the speech is poorly written. There are several ornamental features that run thought it. Trump almost achieves eloquence with:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>whether a child is born in the urban sprawl of Detroit or the windswept plains of Nebraska, they look at the same night sky, and dream the same dreams, and they are infused with breath by the same almighty creator …</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There is ample use of <a href="https://literarydevices.net/anaphora/">anaphora</a>, when Trump begins successive sentences or clauses with the same words: “We will get our people off welfare and back to work … We will follow two simple rules … We will …”</p>
<p>In his culmination, Trump interlaces anaphora with clauses ending in the same words. Such “<a href="http://www.americanrhetoric.com/figures/symploce.htm">symploce</a>” is a rhetorical figure that can be very elegant, although here it verges into prolix sloganeering: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Together we will make America strong again, we will make America wealthy again, we will make America safe again and yes [with self-correction for emphasis], together we will make America great again.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Such figures of the speech, however, form the stock and trade of a rhetorical training. If we ask what is distinct about Mr Trump’s rhetoric in the speech, we need to pitch for the trope of <a href="http://literarydevices.net/antithesis/">antithesis</a>.</p>
<h2>Trumpian Manichaeism</h2>
<p>The classical textbooks set out <a href="http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Rhetorica_ad_Herennium/3*.html">five parts of a speech</a>: the introduction; the narration which sets the scene; then the division, which stipulates what will be new about the speaker’s contribution; the main argument (including responses to likely criticisms); then a conclusion.</p>
<p>What is remarkable about the structure of Mr Trump’s speech is just how brief is his narration, and how all-encompassing his <em>divisio</em> becomes. </p>
<p>After just three sentences, including the formalities thanking the Obamas, Trump’s Address launches straight into what divides this POTUS from all who have come before:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Today’s ceremony, however, has very special meaning because today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another, but transferring it from Washington DC and giving it back to you the people.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As well as being a very bold thing to say, this is the classically populist keynote of the speech. “The people” are named twenty-one times within it, trailing only “America” itself with thirty-eight uses as Trump’s most-used noun. (As a contrast, “the people” are there only eleven times in Obama’s 2013 inauguration address.) </p>
<p>How the power can be transferred back directly to the people in a large nation with a system of representative government, facing almost unprecedented material and educational inequalities, was of course not explained. The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, both of which were central to Obama’s inaugural addresses, were not mentioned. </p>
<p>(Note: perhaps Twitter is the new plebiscite, in a high-tech take on the Weimar Right’s conception of “<a href="http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199916931.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199916931-e-32?mediaType=Article">democracy</a>”.)</p>
<p>Instead, Mr Trump proceeded straight into the antitheses that structure the entire argument: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>for too long a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost … </p>
</blockquote>
<p>There follow six antitheses in sequence that set down the battle lines dividing America’s “forgotten people” from the enfranchised few:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Washington” (which “flourished”) v. the people “not sharing its wealth”. </p>
<p>“Politicians” (who “prospered”) v. “the jobs left and the factories closed”.</p>
<p>“The establishment” (that “protected itself”) v. “the citizens of our country”.</p>
<p>“Their victories” v. “your victories”. </p>
<p>“Their triumphs” v. “your triumphs”.</p>
<p>“Their celebrations” v. “little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.”</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153784/original/image-20170123-30982-e1qdom.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153784/original/image-20170123-30982-e1qdom.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153784/original/image-20170123-30982-e1qdom.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153784/original/image-20170123-30982-e1qdom.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153784/original/image-20170123-30982-e1qdom.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153784/original/image-20170123-30982-e1qdom.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153784/original/image-20170123-30982-e1qdom.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Manicheism a preChristian religion holding that the world is the product of the struggle between good and evil deities.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>It’s between You and Them</h2>
<p>Antithesis can again be a very elegant thing. The bard himself used it often—think: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>To be or not to be. / Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, / Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles, / And by opposing end them: to die, to sleep …</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But decisive in Trump’s antitheses are the way they make everything at once totally impersonal and viscerally personal. The “small group” or “establishment” in “Washington”, these “politicians”, are lined up against “the people” in the first four oppositions of the sequence. </p>
<p>These nefarious elites end up, in the last three antitheses, reduced to a bare “they” whose only determinate feature is that “their” victories and triumphs are not those of “yours”. </p>
<p>In other words, this is politics, not poetry. And it is a very divisive form of populist politics which trades on simplification and provocation. It stokes the fires of the resentment to which it makes its only-ever-half-concealed appeal. </p>
<p>The ensuing argument of the address is then all structured around a further binary contrast, onto which the earlier “you-versus-them” antithesis is superimposed. This is the opposition between the horrifying past (“then”, associated with “them”) and the redemptive future (“now”, happily reclaimed by “we”/“you”/“the people”, in the person of Donald J. Trump). </p>
<p>In the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manichaeism">Manichean</a> light thereby cast, it is hard not to hear the President’s closing appeals to “your courage, goodness and love” as fig leaves concealing more of the same politics of envy and rage that brought Trump to the Oval Office.</p>
<h2>Now</h2>
<p>“The time for empty talk is over, now arrives the hour of action,” Mr Trump concluded. It is true. But for the vast majority of the people in the USA and around the world, all rhetoric aside, there is very little that can be done except to wait and see and hope. For <a href="http://www.authorama.com/essays-of-francis-bacon-13.html">boldness</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>does fascinate, and bind hand and foot, those that are either shallow in judgment, or weak in courage, which are the greatest part; yea and prevails with wise men at weak times: [and thus it] has done wonders in popular states; … [but] more always upon the first entrance of bold persons into action, than soon after; for boldness is an ill keeper of promise.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71695/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<h4 class="border">Disclosure</h4><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Sharpe works at Deakin. He has an ARC grant on philosophy as a practice, which has increasingly seen him working on the remarkable educational legacy of rhetoric. He wishes to thank his coinvestigator in this project, Michael Ure at Monash, for our discussions informing this piece.</span></em></p>Rhetoric can tell us a great deal about a person, or a President. Donald Trump’s inaugural address was light (but dark) on metaphors, and full of divisive antitheses.Matthew Sharpe, Associate Professor in Philosophy, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/716562017-01-21T00:40:01Z2017-01-21T00:40:01ZTrump’s inaugural speech: Is it morning or mourning in America?<p>President Donald Trump’s inaugural speech – a brief address, which, at 1,433 words, was the <a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/inaugurals.php">shortest since President Carter’s</a> – combined his trademark combative populism with shades of Ronald Reagan. </p>
<p>Though sprinkled with calls for unity, it also relied upon creating a sharp divide between his self-declared “movement” and forces aligned with the “Washington establishment.” He also implicitly distinguished between those whom he dubbed “patriots” and everyone else. </p>
<p>In a sense, the speech mimicked today’s political climate. For his base, it will be received as a call for all Americans to unify around his agenda. For his opponents, it will be seen as not only negative, but divisive. Whether one believes that his speech echoed the high ideals of the Gipper or the acrimony of the campaign trail may depend on whether you are a person who believes it is once again <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU-IBF8nwSY">morning in America</a> or a person who is mourning America. </p>
<p>In the end, if it was a call for unity, it was a divisive one.</p>
<h2>Still mired in campaign rhetoric</h2>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo5759249.html">Karlyn Kohrs Campbell and Kathleen Hall Jamieson</a>, two leading experts of presidential rhetoric, an inaugural address functions to: (1) bring together the country; (2) rehearse common values; (3) set forth guiding presidential principles; and (4) demonstrate the presidential persona can be competently performed. Typically, the primary purpose of unification is achieved by rehearsing common values. On that foundation the presidential principles and persona are advanced. </p>
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<p>For this reason, inaugural speeches usually don’t name domestic enemies. Trump’s inaugural was remarkable because of his stark use of direct scapegoating. </p>
<p>For example, although Ronald Reagan decried the “Washington establishment” in his <a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=43130">1981 address</a>, he was deliberately vague: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“From time to time we’ve been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Trump, however, was very direct:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished – but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered – but the jobs left, and the factories closed. The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories; their triumphs have not been your triumphs; and while they celebrated in our nation’s capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The “us versus them” framing defines “the people” not by what they are for, but by whom they are against. There is a call for unity, but it’s a call for unity against the establishment and the other forces that conspire to “steal” America – American jobs, American security and American prosperity.</p>
<p>Of course, the unity-through-exclusion approach was the foundation of Trump’s campaign. (What else does a wall do?) And while the possibility of the political pivot has been torpedoed by the tenacity of Trump’s tweeting, it was still reasonable to expect the historical inertia of the inaugural form might even carry Trump. </p>
<p>Instead, the contradiction between a desire to repeat Reagan’s inaugural and a desire to repeat campaign trail performances carried the day. </p>
<h2>A dark vision</h2>
<p>Trump not only identified an enemy in the establishment, but, as on the campaign trail, he spent a good portion of his time focusing on a list of examples of the “the American carnage” wrought by Washington. </p>
<p>The list is striking for its length and detail, especially given the brevity of the address. </p>
<p>Trump decried that “Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth”; “jobs left and factories closed” (a theme that received mention four times in the speech); “there was little to celebrate for struggling families across the land”; “forgotten men and women”; “mothers trapped in poverty”; “rusted out factories scattered like tombstones”; “an education system…that leaves our students deprived of all knowledge”; “crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen lives”; “enriching foreign industry at the expense of American industry”; “the depletion of our military”; “infrastructure that has fallen into disrepair and decay”; “the wealth, strength and confidence of our country [dissipated]”; “millions of workers left behind”; “the wealth of the middle class ripped from their homes”; and the threat of “radical Islamic terrorism.”</p>
<p>It is a long list, and one that is more striking for the appearance of a number of words, <a href="https://twitter.com/PostGraphics/status/822543252465319937">according to the Washington Post</a>, that had never appeared in an inaugural before. It wasn’t just “carnage”; there was “bleed,” “sad,” “ripped,” “trapped” and “stolen.” </p>
<p>Is it morning in America? Or are we mourning in America? </p>
<p>The paradox of Trump’s address is that it broke from the more inclusive calls to national unity that previous presidents have made to all Americans, instead aligning himself and the people against an amorphously defined “establishment.” </p>
<p>Trump’s speech was a near-perfect example of the contradictions he will face as president. How will a candidate who has run against the establishment, who then excoriated it in his first address as president, be able to work with members of the establishment to generate a consensus around a governing agenda? Who exactly counts as “the people”? </p>
<p>If there was uncertainty during the transition, there’s now even more uncertainty about how President Trump will govern.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71656/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An address that’s normally a call for unity instead mirrored the rhetoric of his campaign: unfocused, contradictory and divisive.Christian Lundberg, Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Communication Consultant, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillJoshua Gunn, Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Affiliate Faculty in the Department of Rhetoric and Writing, The University of Texas at AustinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/697622016-12-07T02:09:50Z2016-12-07T02:09:50Z‘Hail Trump’ salute recalls a powerful message of hate<p>During a Nov. 22 celebration of Donald Trump’s election triumph, members of a far-right organization, the National Policy Institute, <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/11/richard-spencer-speech-npi/508379/">were filmed</a> extending a stiff arm in the iconic “Heil Hitler” salute of Nazi Germany. Ensuring there would be no mistaking the gesture, National Policy Institute President Richard Spencer shouted, “Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!”</p>
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<p>The video echoed, on a very small scale, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXST0wF5T4s">mass rallies</a> that were once held in Nazi Germany. Huge crowds with their arms raised “were an essential part of Nazi propaganda, designed to demonstrate public solidarity with the policies of the Nazi Party,” write Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O’Donnell in <a href="https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/propaganda-persuasion/book239374">“Propaganda & Persuasion</a>.”</p>
<p>Two years ago, when I prepared slides on the Nazi salute for my rhetoric class on “The Art of Argument,” I had no idea that I would soon see that gesture reborn in the America political landscape.</p>
<p>Before the Nov. 8 election, the use of the Nazi salute by a fringe group might have been dismissed as a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmYIo7bcUw">“Springtime for Hitler”</a> moment, something too outrageous to be taken seriously, as satirized in “The Producers” <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063462/">movie</a> and Tony-winning Broadway <a href="http://broadwaymusicalhome.com/shows/producers.htm">musical</a>.</p>
<p>Post-election, the gesture represents something that demands serious attention. Historically, hand and arm gestures have had as powerful an impact as slogans or symbols. That Nazi salute should be considered in that context.</p>
<h2>History of gestures</h2>
<p>Certain gestures can send powerful rhetoric and cultural messages. There’s even an <a href="http://www.gesturestudies.com/">International Society for Gesture Studies</a> which promotes gesture studies worldwide. </p>
<p>Consider a common two-finger salute. During World War II, the two-finger salute of <a href="http://time.com/3880345/v-for-victory-a-gesture-of-solidarity-and-defiance/">“V for Victory”</a> gave courage to Allied troops. A similar gesture morphed into the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/from-churchill-to-libya-how-the-v-symbol-went-viral/2011/03/18/AFzPiYYB_story.html?utm_term=.d39cb938adde">peace sign</a>, a gesture of resistance and solidarity during the 1960s protests against the Vietnam War. Turn the V-sign palm facing in, and you have a <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2015/10/15/the_up_yours_gesture_looks_like_a_peace_sign.html">gesture</a> that is considered rude in the United Kingdom.</p>
<p>The Vulcan salute, adopted by actor Leonard Nimoy for the original “Star Trek” series, came from a Jewish blessing, and has become part of the American lexicon of gesture. After Nimoy’s death, <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2015/0228/A-sign-from-space-Live-long-and-prosper-Leonard-Nimoy-video">NASA astronaut Terry Virts</a> made the “Live Long and Prosper” sign while aboard the International Space Station and sent it to Earth via Twitter.</p>
<p>The current uproar over athletes kneeling during the National Anthem pales beside the outrage that greeted athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos when they each held aloft a black-gloved fist clenched in the “Black Power” salute during their <a href="http://time.com/3880999/black-power-salute-tommie-smith-and-john-carlos-at-the-1968-olympics/">medal ceremony</a> at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.</p>
<p>A three-fingered salute plays a key role in the book series “The Hunger Games.” According to narrator Katniss Everdeen, <a href="https://www.quora.com/Why-has-the-three-finger-salute-in-The-Hunger-Games-become-the-icon-of-resistance-even-though-it-means-showing-thanks-admiration-and-good-bye-to-a-loved-one">raising a hand with three fingers</a> extended is “an old and rarely used gesture [that] means thanks, it means admiration, it means good-bye to someone you love.” In the book, the gesture becomes a sign of resistance.</p>
<p>Fiction became reality in May 2014, when three Thailand political activists protesting a coup held their hands up in a three-finger salute and were <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/21/world/asia/thailand-protesters-hunger-games-salute.html?_r=0">detained</a>. Thai authorities likely never heard of Katniss Everdeen, yet they knew a sign of rebellion when they saw it.</p>
<h2>As old as politics</h2>
<p>“Gestures are as old as politics itself,” <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/middle-east/2014-09-03/isis-sends-message">writes</a> Nathaniel Zelinsky in a Foreign Affairs article that probes the use of gestures employed by radical Islamists and other groups in Middle East. Zelinsky argues that we must pay attention to these hand signals as they “communicate complex political messages that Western observers have largely ignored.”</p>
<p>Gestures, he <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/middle-east/2014-09-03/isis-sends-message">notes</a>, including the Nazi salute, became especially important with the advent of mass media in the 20th century:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Consider what is perhaps the best-known example: Adolf Hitler’s fascist salute. In a single gesture, Hitler communicated the power of National Socialism, the obedience of German crowds, and his own role as a supreme leader. And because pictures of him saluting were printed in newspapers around the world, the symbol reached billions.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In Europe, the Nazi salute is so potent it can be considered <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/queen-nazi-salute-countries-where-gesture-is-illegal-10401630.html">hate speech</a>. To get around these laws, a controversial <a href="http://theconversation.com/why-dieudonnes-quenelle-gesture-poses-challenges-for-britain-and-france-22731">French comedian</a> created an inverted Nazi salute called the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-25550581">“quenelle,”</a> in which a stiff arm is held down, rather than up, and is interpreted as support of anti-Zionism. The gesture has spread across the internet through selfies, as <a href="http://www.jewishledger.com/2015/04/conversation-with-prof-gavriel-rosenfeld/">Gavriel Rosenfeld</a> explores in his book “Hi Hitler: How the Nazi Past Is Normalized in Contemporary Culture.”</p>
<p>Unlike in France, gestures may fall under First Amendment protection in the United States, affording protection to even Nazi salutes. The National Policy Institute may have taken advantage of this protection in that November meeting. Whether deliberate or not, Trump supporters have displayed a Heil Hitler-like gesture at more than one <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-right-hand-salute_us_56db50d8e4b03a405678e27a">Trump rally</a>.</p>
<p>The stiff-arm salute is not a trivial gesture. It is not <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/03/29/an-establishment-conservatives-guide-to-the-alt-right/">alt-right</a> so much as it is Third Reich redux, a revival of a dangerous ideology. Just consider the message from the National Policy Institute’s <a href="http://www.npiamerica.org">website</a>, which declares it is “dedicated to the heritage, identity, and future of people of European descent in the United States, and around the world.” It is not a stretch to compare this to the Nazi veneration of the supposed <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Aryan">“Aryan”</a> or “ethnically pure” race. </p>
<p>Thus far, the president-elect has expressed more outrage over <a href="http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/22/13714604/donald-trump-twitter-hate-crime">the cast of “Hamilton”</a> addressing Mike Pence at the theater than neo-Nazis saluting in his name.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69762/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephanie Schorow does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The reboot of the Nazi salute should not be taken lightly, given its history of hatred and genocide.Stephanie Schorow, Adjunct Professor of Professional Writing, Regis College, Regis CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/678312016-11-09T19:43:13Z2016-11-09T19:43:13ZWhy the Trump effect could increase bullying<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145282/original/image-20161109-19068-huljl5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What has the 'Trump effect' been on children?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/juanfg/27649705816/in/photolist-J8iYeN-9gGtav-aB58qB-6kAdNB-6kEFcN-JtcoX3-6kEdMs-dvjV3V-DkBb6o-f5htfg-6kExbo-8ZaSQ5-qsbbUx-6kAnkV-4JGrmr-6kEjhE-6kEbKw-6kAshx-9pjoBx-G1xeDL-AN7Kzf-6kApxX-6kzXpi-GT4eJh-6kEy1C-6kDRm3-6kDSsN-6kApoF-6kDUvY-6kzKii-6kAq66-6kE2YA-6kzGwH-6kEeK1-5us3ED-6kzUbx-6kAgL4-6kDRHE-6kzWQP-6kEsk1-6kzXhX-6kDUJw-6kED9m-6kzYMV-6kAs7F-6kzS4H-6kEcFw-6kEck7-6kzSTX-6kEnjs">Juan</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Donald Trump has won the presidency, but not before launching one of the most ugly and fractious campaigns in American history. As the 2016 election season now comes to a close, there are signs that it has left scars behind, particularly in the schools of the United States. </p>
<p>The National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest teachers’ union, recently launched an information campaign to tie Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s <a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2016/10/trump_inspires_school_bullying.html">“inflammatory rhetoric”</a> to an increase in bullying in America’s schools. </p>
<p>At the same time, the nonprofit <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/">Southern Poverty Law Center</a> released survey data from the <a href="http://www.tolerance.org/">“Teaching Tolerance”</a> project that gave details about the <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/20160413/trump-effect-impact-presidential-campaign-our-nations-schools">toxic effects</a> Trump’s campaign rhetoric has had on teachers and students (and especially racial/ethnic minority students). </p>
<p>The SPLC report described immigrant students’ – especially Muslim and Latino immigrants – concerns about what might happen to them or their families after the election. Most respondents reported an increase in uncivil political discourse or anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant attitudes. Teachers reported reluctance to discuss the election in their classrooms due to fear of escalating this phenomenon.</p>
<p>I am a professor of special education and a behavioral science researcher currently involved in studying the effects of bullying prevention in schools. <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Social_learning_and_personality_developm.html?id=-WhHAAAAMAAJ">Social learning theory tells us</a> that people learn from one another, via observation, imitation and modeling. </p>
<p>The most powerful models are those we consider to have higher status: older or more able children, parents, school adults and public figures such as celebrities and political candidates like Trump. </p>
<h2>Bullying is pervasive</h2>
<p>No matter what their experiences or background in growing up, most adults can remember at least one or two occasions during childhood where <a href="http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/regions/northwest/pdf/REL_2011114_sum.pdf">they were picked on</a>, <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J008v19n02_05">humiliated, intimidated</a>, or perhaps even beaten up. </p>
<p>Bullying incidents most often occur in school, <a href="https://www.stopbullying.gov/news/media/facts/#listing">where there is limited adult supervision</a> and monitoring. In the 2016 election campaign, <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/20160413/trump-effect-impact-presidential-campaign-our-nations-schools#students">teachers have reported</a> that students felt “emboldened” to “use slurs, engage in name-calling and make inflammatory statements toward each other.”</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145285/original/image-20161109-19062-6ys72b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145285/original/image-20161109-19062-6ys72b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145285/original/image-20161109-19062-6ys72b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145285/original/image-20161109-19062-6ys72b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145285/original/image-20161109-19062-6ys72b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145285/original/image-20161109-19062-6ys72b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145285/original/image-20161109-19062-6ys72b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Bullying is pervasive.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/346159904?src=znWpW3zqqZsFMXunahdMnQ-3-98&id=346159904&size=medium_jpg">Girl image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>In a short time period like an election cycle, we cannot scientifically prove a relationship between Donald Trump’s public behavior and a change in the way children behave. But it is important to consider what the effect of Trump’s rhetoric might be on teachers and schoolchildren. </p>
<p>An online survey conducted by The Southern Poverty Law Center’s <a href="http://www.tolerance.org/magazine/archives">Teaching Tolerance magazine</a> found that teachers have been hesitant to teach about the election largely out of fear of promoting more student conflict around the topic. In Portland, Oregon, a principal imposed a “gag order” on teachers and prohibited them from talking about the election. </p>
<p>But even if the teachers did not discuss the issues in the classroom, students were talking among themselves or on social media. In Massachusetts, an <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/20160413/trump-effect-impact-presidential-campaign-our-nations-schools#students">elementary school social worker described</a> what was happening to her eight-year-old son, who was adopted from Korea. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“He came home from school and recounted a conversation he’d had with his friends on the playground. Many … come from immigrant families and/or are black or brown. He told me they know that if Donald Trumpet [sic] was elected that we would have to move to another continent to be safe and that there would be a big war. He is very nervous about being sent away with my husband who is also Korean American.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Is ‘Trump effect’ leading to bullying?</h2>
<p>There are many theories about how bullying develops. A simple explanation is that of modeling, first researched and explained as <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Social_learning_and_personality_developm.html?id=-WhHAAAAMAAJ">Social Learning Theory</a> by psychologist <a href="https://psychology.stanford.edu/abandura">Albert Bandura</a>. </p>
<p>This theory suggests that children imitate the words and behaviors they hear. “Attractive” role models (such as parents or others in authority such as political candidates) may have a stronger modeling effect.</p>
<p>When children watch television or other media and listen to their parents or others in authority talk about political candidates such as Trump and his statements, they learn to use the same language in their daily discourse. Trump’s own behaviors that children can see through the media (television, Twitter) can also serve as a model. We can’t prove this as a cause, but certainly there is substantial evidence from the aforementioned reports to suggest a strong relationship.</p>
<p>We know from new research that the earlier portrait of a young person who bullies as someone who is insecure and has low self-esteem is somewhat misleading. The latest research indicates that teen bullies – both boys and girls – <a href="http://www.jhsph.edu/research/centers-and-institutes/center-for-adolescent-health/_includes/_pre-redesign/Bullying_HQP.pdf">tend to be confident</a>, with high self-esteem and may even have elevated social status among their peers. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145288/original/image-20161109-19068-dfxziz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145288/original/image-20161109-19068-dfxziz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145288/original/image-20161109-19068-dfxziz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145288/original/image-20161109-19068-dfxziz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145288/original/image-20161109-19068-dfxziz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145288/original/image-20161109-19068-dfxziz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145288/original/image-20161109-19068-dfxziz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A bully is not someone who is insecure, but someone confident.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/104313125?src=MQFKhtOtnQspgDUli9Nqew-1-8&id=104313125&size=vector_eps">Cartoon image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>The point is that schools are diverse places. Children are routinely placed in classrooms, common areas, the bus, etc. with diverse students. Those students can become the targets of bullying and harassment based on their race/ethnicity, gender, disability or sexual orientation.</p>
<p>Even characteristics such as being smaller, overweight or wearing glasses can make a student a more vulnerable target. Trump’s seemingly endless – until now – misogynistic, racist, and <a href="http://www.stopableism.org/what.asp">“ableist”</a> (anti-disability) statements could provide the model for children to use in schools and elsewhere.</p>
<p>In his acceptance speech, he distanced himself from the nastiness of the campaign and avoided any mention of mass deportation of Muslims, torture of terrorism suspects or the building of a giant wall on the southern border.</p>
<h2>Stop bullying</h2>
<p>Requiring those who bully and harass to stop is of course complex and often difficult. But we can at least make sure our <a href="http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1286&context=sped_facpub">school personnel are supported</a> to learn and practice evidence-based strategies to prevent and respond to this type of behavior.</p>
<p>For example, schools could do regular surveys to find out more about the environment. But, at times, such as the 2016 election campaign, even such surveys may not be enough as new forms of bullying emerge.</p>
<p>So, to <a href="http://store.iirp.edu/dreaming-of-a-new-reality/">check bullying</a> both schools and families need to be actively involved in talking with children and modeling behavior that supports tolerance, respect and inclusion of all people. Families need to talk to their children so they can check them from bullying as well as being bullied. </p>
<p>Negative and toxic rhetoric will likely continue long after this election. But we need to work to ensure that our children inherit a world that is safe, civil and respectful.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67831/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeffrey R. Sprague receives funding from the U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice to study the impact of school climate and bullying prevention. He has received funding from the U.S. Department of Education to study the effects of school climate and behavioral supports for school-age students. </span></em></p>At this time, researchers cannot prove a direct relationship. But social learning theory shows that people learn from one another, via observation, imitation and modeling.Jeffrey R. Sprague, Professor of Special Education, University of OregonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.