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ABSTRACT
Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation battle challenges traditional rubrics for evaluating apologia. In cases of hyper-partisan apologia aimed at convincing a partisan audience, an alternative framework is needed. We argue that Kavanaugh salvaged his confirmation by conducting hyper-partisan apologia and identify three elements of this strategy. This essay demonstrates the importance of differentiating audiences in analyses of apologia and proposes the existence of a sub-genre of hyper-partisan apologia.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank editor Ned O’Gorman, the anonymous reviewers, Robert Rowland, and Talya Slaw for their help crafting this essay.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. Similarly, Chanon Adsanatham (Citation2018) recognized the “limitations of civility … for propelling civic change” and that norms against certain persons behaving uncivilly can “curtail rhetorical possibilities” (272).
2. Fox News is conservative both in terms of its audience, which largely identifies as conservative, and its content, which is usually favorable toward Republicans: the television channel “has become so tightly bound to Republican elected officials and candidates that it can now properly be considered a component of the party’s extended network” (Grossmann and Hopkins Citation2018, 552). According to Pew Research Center polling, the majority of Fox News viewers identify as conservative (“In Changing News Landscape” Citation2012).
3. Later in the hearing, Kavanaugh apologized for his treatment of Klobuchar.
4. Furthermore, Jamieson and Cappella (Citation2008) have identified “the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal” as a key element of conservative media (42).
5. Kavanaugh’s assertion that Democrats violated Ford’s request for anonymity is potentially inaccurate, as responsibility for the release of this information is unclear (Phillips Citation2018b).
6. A Quinnipiac University poll found that “48 percent of American voters most believe Ford as 41 percent most believe Kavanaugh” (“More U.S. Voters” Citation2018).
7. Benoit (Citation2018) noted that attacking accusers and denial were frequently used in the 2016 presidential debates between Trump and Clinton.