Description
Book SynopsisRhetoric and Governance under Trump: Proclamations from the Bullshit Pulpit analyzes the rhetoric of Donald Trump to argue that Trump's deeply illiberal rhetoric, cruel policies, corruption, disruptive foreign policy, and disdain for the rule of law makes him a textbook populist. However, his embrace of mainstream conservative policies and the culture war narratives that come with them made him a rather conventional Republican. Being more plutocrat than populist, Trump had to bridge this fundamental contradiction by employing populist and polarizing rhetoric, alongside fabricated crises, to uphold the veneer of being an anti-status quo politician. Bernd Kaussler, Lars J. Kristiansen, and Jeffrey Delbert argue that, for Trump, bullshit, confrontational politics, and fear has emerged as a vital political strategy. Through an analysis of Trump's first three years in office, the authors find that President Trump governed using a communication strategy that a) denied facts, relied heavily o
Trade ReviewThe title, and especially the subtitle, of this book by political scientist Kaussler (James Madison Univ.) and two communications professors, Kristiansen (also James Madison Univ.) and Delbert (Lenoir-Rhyne Univ.), pretty much says it all. Building on Harry G. Frankfurt's best-selling treatise On Bullshit (2005), these authors identify the genre in question with "inflated" and "hyperbolic" rhetoric, "akin to 'humbug' and lacking in substance." They further link it to a president whom they describe as overconfident, uninformed, and uninterested in truth. They illustrate with specific chapters involving Trump's response to racist actions in Charlottesville, Virginia; his attempts to polarize rather than unify the electorate; his populist attacks on the media; his contradictory defenses during his impeachment hearings; and his erratic foreign policies. This book provides an insightful, sobering account of the corrosive effects of a completely transactional view of truth that, as Mettler and Lieberman have documented in Four Threats (2020), is steadily undermining democracy in the US. . . The authors conclude that if we remain "without better crap detection," other politicians will adopt similar rhetorical forms. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. General readers.
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Table of ContentsChapter 1: Trump, Bullshit, and the Pictures in Our Heads
Chapter 2: “I think I know it better than they do”: Presidential Rhetoric and Evidence Use
Chapter 3: “Very Fine People on Both Sides:” Kategoria, Apologia, and Trump’s Response to Charlottesville
Chapter 4: “Time to start looking at the other side” : The Rhetoric of Bullshit and Polarization
Chapter 5: “American Carnage”: Governance under Trump
Chapter 6: “Great and Unmatched Wisdom”: Foreign Policy under Trump
Chapter 7: Conclusion
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About the Authors
