Description
Book SynopsisWhy is the metaphor of the Founding Fathers so insidiousand how does it impact American politics?
American politicians routinely invoke the metaphor of the Founding Fathers when referring to the men who supposedly set the United States on a path to greatness. On average, the term Founding Fathers is uttered by a congressional member every single day that Congress is in session. Why is this metaphor repeated constantlyand what effect does it have on policy? In Invoking the Fathers, communication scholar Sarah Kornfield links this rhetorical strategy to the rise of patriarchal white supremacy and Christian nationalism in the United States.
Using the House and the Senate as the objects of her study, Kornfield traces the trope of fatherhood across congressional discourse and theorizes a rhetoric of sovereignty in which the founders'' most obvious heirswhite Christian meninherit America and its governance. Congressional politicians use this metaphor in four ways
