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Abstract
As scholars, media, and the U.S. public struggled to make sense of what was happening to presidential rhetoric during the 2016 campaign cycle, the word demagogue quickly became part of the vernacular. Our current understanding of demagoguery does not adequately explain what audiences are witnessing in high-profile discourse as existing scholarship on demagogic rhetoric does not account for its nature as shifting and evolving. I argue that rhetorical scholarship—and society at large—would benefit from a renewed exploration of the rhetoric of demagoguery, as the current mainstreaming and pervasiveness of demagogic rhetoric requires an updated understanding that considers evolving and ongoing situations. Utilizing the transcripts of the three 2016 presidential debates, I illustrate the importance of examining texts that evolve over time, are interactive, and are part of an ongoing campaign or exchange as rhetorical scholars seek to expand our conception of the rhetoric of demagoguery.
Notes
[1] Michael D. Shear, “A Taste for Reality TV Seen in Popularity of Presidential Debates,” New York Times, November 11, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/12/us/politics/taste-for-reality-tv-seen-in-popularity-of-debates.html
[2] Jacob Brogan, “The Best Burns, Worst Jokes, and Most Memorable Lines of the First Presidential Debate,” Slate, September 26, 2016, http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/09/26/read_the_best_burns_lines_and_quotes_of_the_first_2016_presidential_debate.html
[3] Gregory Krieg and Daniella Diaz, “Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton III: The Most Memorable Lines,” CNN.com, October 20, 2016, http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/19/politics/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-quotes/index.html
[4] Krieg and Diaz, “Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton III.”
[5] See Colleen E. Kelley and Rod Troester, “Republican Campaign Rhetoric: Reflections of a Meaner, Tougher America,” Howard Journal of Communications 3, (Summer/Fall 1991): 113; Max Fisher, “Trump’s Threat to Reject Election Outcome Alarms Scholars,” New York Times, October 23, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/23/world/americas/donald-trump-rigged-election.html; Michael Signer, “Donald Trump Wasn’t a Textbook Demagogue. Until Now,” Washington Post, December 2, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/12/02/donald-trump-wasnt-a-textbook-demagogue-until-now/
[6] Eli Stokols, “Trump Stays Alive,” Politico, October 10, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/2016-presidential-debate-donald-trump-campaign-countdown-229525
[7] Stokols, “Trump Stays Alive.”
[8] Stokols, “Trump Stays Alive.”
[9] Stephen Stromberg, “In His Acceptance Speech, Trump Displays His Demagoguery,” Washington Post, July 22, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2016/07/22/in-his-acceptance-speech-trump-displays-his-demagoguery/
[10] Robinson Meyer, “Donald Trump is the First Demagogue of the Anthropocene,” Atlantic, October 19, 2016, http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/10/trump-the-first-demagogue-of-the-anthropocene/504134/
[11] David Smith, “Donald Trump: Property Magnate, TV Star, Demagogue … And Now President,” Guardian, November 9, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/09/donald-trump-president-billionaire-sociopath-star
[12] Smith, “Donald Trump.”
[13] Merriam-Webster, s.v. “demagogue (n.),” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/demagogue (accessed January 9, 2018).
[14] Signer, “Textbook Demagogue.”
[15] Charles W. Lomas, “The Rhetoric of Demagoguery,” Western Speech 25, no. 3 (1961): 161.
[16] Patricia Roberts-Miller, “Democracy, Demagoguery, and Critical Rhetoric,” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 8, no. 3 (2005): 474.
[17] Roberts-Miller, “Democracy, Demagoguery, and Critical Rhetoric,” 462.
[18] Joshua Gunn, “Hystericizing Huey: Emotional Appeals, Desire, and the Psychodynamics of Demagoguery,” Western Journal of Communication 71, no. 1 (2007): 6.
[19] J. Justin Gustainis, “Demagoguery and Political Rhetoric: A Review of the Literature,” Rhetoric Society Quarterly 20, (Spring 1990): 158.
[20] See Gustainis, “Demagoguery and Political Rhetoric,” 159; Lomas, “The Rhetoric of Demagoguery,” 163; Barnet Baskerville, “Joe McCarthy, Brief-Case Demagogue,” Today’s Speech 2, no. 3 (1954): 9–10.
[21] Baskerville, “Brief-Case Demagogue,” 9.
[22] Baskerville, “Brief-Case Demagogue,” 9.
[23] See also Ernest G. Bormann, “Huey Long: Analysis of a Demagogue,” Today’s Speech 2, no. 3 (1954): 16–20.
[24] Gunn, “Hystericizing Huey,” 6.
[25] Rita Kirk Whillock, “The Subversion of Argument: Lessons from the Demagogic Rhetoric of David Duke,” Political Communication 11, no. 3 (1994): 218.
[26] See Gustainis, “Demagoguery and Political Rhetoric,” 155; Lomas, “The Rhetoric of Demagoguery,” 162; Roberts-Miller, “Democracy, Demagoguery, and Critical Rhetoric,” 471.
[27] Baskerville, “Brief-Case Demagogue,” 11.
[28] Kelley and Troester, “Republican Campaign Rhetoric,” 125.
[29] Michael Calvin McGee, “Text, Context, and the Fragmentation of Contemporary Culture,” Western Journal of Speech Communication 54, (Summer 1990): 279.
[30] Emma Green, “‘We Are Preparing to Shatter the Highest Glass Ceiling in Our Country,’” Atlantic, July 26, 2016, http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/hillary-clinton-first-female-presidential-nominee/493163/
[31] Laura Koran and Ryan Browne, “Can Trump Be the First to Go Directly From Corner Office to Oval Office?” CNN.com, August 12, 2016, http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/11/politics/donald-trump-businessmen-presidents-history/
[32] See, for instance, Pamela Engel, “‘This is Unprecedented’: Poll Reinforces Stunning Fact About the Presidential Campaign,” Business Insider, August 29, 2016, http://www.businessinsider.com/monmouth-poll-trump-clinton-popularity-2016-8; Danielle Kurtzleben, “The Most ‘Unprecedented’ Election Ever? 65 Ways it Has Been,” NPR.org, July 3, 2016, http://www.npr.org/2016/07/03/484214413/the-most-unprecedented-election-ever-65-ways-it-has-been; Daniel Dale, “Donald Trump May be a Threat to Global Democracy, Experts Warn,” Toronto Star, October 17, 2016, https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/10/17/donald-trump-may-be-a-threat-to-global-democracy-experts-warnscholars-of-dictators-alarmed-by-donald-trumps-attacks-on-election-system.html; Smith, “Donald Trump.”
[33] Kathleen Hall Jamieson, “Television, Presidential Campaigns, and Debates,” in Presidential Debates: 1988 and Beyond, edited by Joel L. Swerdlow (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1987), 28.
[34] Edward A. Hinck, Enacting the Presidency: Political Argument, Presidential Debates, and Presidential Character (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1993), 4.
[35] Hinck, Enacting the Presidency, 5.
[36] Jamieson, “Television, Presidential Campaigns, and Debates,” 29.
[37] Hinck, Enacting the Presidency, 216.
[38] Fisher, “Trump’s Threat to Reject Election Outcome Alarms Scholars.”
[39] Jamieson, “Television, Presidential Campaigns, and Debates,” 29.
[40] Signer, “Textbook Demagogue.”
[41] According to Adweek.com, “2016 delivered the most viewers of any presidential debate cycle in U.S. TV history” with a combined total (including the Vice Presidential debate) of 259 million viewers, October 22, 2016, http://www.adweek.com/tv-video/presidential-debates-set-ratings-records-2016-does-format-need-change-174205/
[42] See “Full Transcript: First 2016 Presidential Debate,” Politico, September 27, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/full-transcript-first-2016-presidential-debate-228761; “Full Transcript: Second 2016 Presidential Debate,” Politico, October 10, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/2016-presidential-debate-transcript-229519; “Full Transcript: Third 2016 Presidential Debate,” Politico, October 20, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/full-transcript-third-2016-presidential-debate-230063
[43] Kenneth Burke, The Philosophy of Literary Form (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1974), 191–220.
[44] Burke, The Philosophy of Literary Form, 192.
[45] Burke, The Philosophy of Literary Form, 193.
[46] Roberts-Miller, “Democracy, Demagoguery, and Critical Rhetoric,” 463.
[47] Roberts-Miller, “Democracy, Demagoguery, and Critical Rhetoric,” 462.
[48] Kelley and Troester, “Republican Campaign Rhetoric,” 114.
[49] “Full Transcript: First 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[50] “Full Transcript: First 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[51] “Full Transcript: First 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[52] “Full Transcript: First 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[53] “Full Transcript: First 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[54] “Full Transcript: First 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[55] “Full Transcript: First 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[56] “Full Transcript: Second 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[57] “Full Transcript: Second 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[58] “Full Transcript: Second 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[59] “Full Transcript: Third 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[60] “Full Transcript: Second 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[61] “Full Transcript: Third 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[62] Burke, The Philosophy of Literary Form, 193.
[63] “Full Transcript: Second 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[64] “Full Transcript: First 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[65] “Full Transcript: First 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[66] “Full Transcript: Second 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[67] “Full Transcript: Second 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[68] “Full Transcript: Third 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[69] “Full Transcript: Third 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[70] David E. Foster, “Bush’s Use of the Terrorism and ‘Moral Values’ Issues in his 2004 Presidential Campaign Rhetoric: An Instance of the Rhetorical Strategy of Polarization,” Ohio Communication Journal 44, (October 2006): 37.
[71] Burke, The Philosophy of Literary Form, 194.
[72] See Roberts-Miller, “Democracy, Demagoguery, and Critical Rhetoric,” 462–64, 468–69.
[73] Whillock, “The Subversion of Argument,” 228.
[74] Gunn, “Hystericizing Huey,” 6.
[75] Gustainis, “Demagoguery and Political Rhetoric,” 158.
[76] “Full Transcript: First 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[77] “Full Transcript: First 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[78] “Full Transcript: First 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[79] “Full Transcript: Third 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[80] “Full Transcript: First 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[81] “Full Transcript: Third 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[82] “Full Transcript: Second 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[83] “Full Transcript: Third 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[84] “Full Transcript: Third 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[85] “Full Transcript: First 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[86] “Full Transcript: Third 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[87] “Full Transcript: First 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[88] “Full Transcript: Third 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[89] Baskerville, “Brief-Case Demagogue,” 15; Gunn, “Hystericizing Huey,” 6; Lomas, “The Rhetoric of Demagoguery,” 165.
[90] Gustainis, “Demagoguery and Political Rhetoric,” 156.
[91] See Baskerville, “Brief-Case Demagogue.”
[92] See Roberts-Miller, “Democracy, Demagoguery, and Critical Rhetoric;” Gunn, “Hystericizing Huey.”
[93] Gunn, “Hystericizing Huey,” 7.
[94] “Full Transcript: Third 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[95] “Full Transcript: First 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[96] “Full Transcript: First 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[97] “Full Transcript: First 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[98] “Full Transcript: Third 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[99] “Full Transcript: First 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[100] “Full Transcript: Second 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[101] “Full Transcript: Third 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[102] “Full Transcript: Third 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[103] “Full Transcript: Second 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[104] “Full Transcript: Third 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[105] “Full Transcript: First 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[106] “Full Transcript: First 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[107] “Full Transcript: Third 2016 Presidential Debate.”
[108] Joseph Keith Woodard, “Extravagance and Mediocrity of Virtue: Their Divergence and the Possibility of Demagoguery,” Political Communication 9 (1992): 129.
[109] Gustainis, “Demagoguery and Political Rhetoric,” 161.
[110] Jamieson, “Television, Presidential Campaigns, and Debates,” 28–30.
[111] Signer, “Textbook Demagogue.”