{"id":4716,"date":"2016-06-15T18:08:30","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T18:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=4716"},"modified":"2016-06-17T18:13:48","modified_gmt":"2016-06-17T18:13:48","slug":"in-the-wake-of-tragedy-trump-takes-rhetoric-of-fear-to-a-whole-new-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/in-the-wake-of-tragedy-trump-takes-rhetoric-of-fear-to-a-whole-new-level\/","title":{"rendered":"In the wake of tragedy, Trump takes rhetoric of fear to a whole new level"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephanie A. Martin<\/a>, Southern Methodist University<\/a><\/em> and Christopher Salinas<\/a>, Southern Methodist University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Donald Trump\u2019s remarks in the aftermath of the Orlando shooting massacre \u2013 especially the reiteration<\/a> of his call to temporarily ban Muslim immigration to the United States \u2013 angered leaders across America\u2019s political spectrum.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not just a national security issue,\u201d Trump said. \u201cIt\u2019s a quality of life issue. If we want to protect the quality of life for all Americans \u2013 women and children, gay and straight, Jews and Christians and all people \u2013 then we need to tell the truth about radical Islam and we need to do it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barack Obama called these words<\/a> \u201cdangerous\u201d and against \u201cdemocratic ideals.\u201d House Speaker Paul Ryan added<\/a> that the \u201cvast majority of Muslims in this country and around the world are moderate, they\u2019re peaceful, they\u2019re tolerant, and so they\u2019re among our best allies.\u201d And Hillary Clinton called<\/a> Trump\u2019s ideas and approach \u201cshameful.\u201d<\/p>\n

As scholars of political rhetoric, we see parallels in Trump\u2019s speech to leaders and candidates who have tried to use fear to unite voters.<\/p>\n

However, Trump takes the use of this rhetoric to a new level, using narrative devices that translate fear into anger, evoke doomsday scenarios and demonize entire groups of people.<\/p>\n

United against a shared threat<\/h2>\n

In the 1980s, a group of social psychologists developed Terror Management Theory<\/a>, which is based on our (uniquely human) awareness that death is inevitable. According to the theory, people become anxious and scared when they\u2019re reminded of this fact. This fear, in turn, makes them more likely to coalesce around a shared identity or worldview: a religion, country, culture or ideology.<\/p>\n

Of course, the vivid drama of terrorist attacks \u2013 people covered in blood, 911 calls, bodies piled up \u2013 are an especially effective means for reminding people of their own human frailty.<\/p>\n

After attacks, politicians sometimes seek to capitalize on this vulnerability, turning speeches and press conferences into opportunities to rhetorically place the \u201cnation\u201d and cherished \u201cfreedoms\u201d as at risk. The attack on a few becomes an attack on all. When speakers do this successfully, they are able to unite voters through a sense of shared threat.<\/p>\n

In his address to the nation after the Pearl Harbor attacks, for example, Franklin Roosevelt<\/a> declared that there would be \u201cno blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests [were] in grave danger.\u201d<\/p>\n

His remarks that day, which became known as the \u201cInfamy Speech<\/a>,\u201d are generally regarded as having been crucial to Roosevelt\u2019s ability to both unite and reassure the public, while also marshaling widespread support for the country\u2019s formal entry into World War II.<\/p>\n

George W. Bush used similar rhetoric<\/a> on the night of September 11, 2001, when he said that the American \u201cway of life [and] very freedom [had come] under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bush\u2019s approval ratings shot through the roof<\/a> as political differences were cast aside in favor of national unity.<\/p>\n

But, like almost all things Trump, the candidate\u2019s use of an already familiar rhetorical trope has been more sweeping than those that came before.<\/p>\n

From fear to hate<\/h2>\n

Trump\u2019s discourse, both leading up to and following the Orlando shooting, begins with a pathos of fear but ends with an appeal to anger.<\/p>\n

In rhetoric, pathos<\/a> refers to arguments that appeal to the emotions of the audience, and appealing to emotion comes with inherent dangers. Yoda may have put it best in \u201cStar Wars\u201d when he warned, \u201cFear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Donald Trump may be no Jedi Master, his use of a pathos of fear suggests he is betting that he can turn the tail end of Yoda\u2019s warning \u2013 hate \u2013 into votes.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n A demonstrator protests against Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump near his campaign rally in Greensboro, North Carolina on June 14.<\/span>
\n Jonathan Drake\/Reuters<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This requires, however, not so much the creation of fear \u2013 terrorism is real, and the Orlando shooting really happened \u2013 but, rather, finding ways to rhetorically stoke particular anxieties that already exist in the popular American consciousness: Crime. Unemployment. Lost freedom. Forgotten values.<\/p>\n

Having raised these possibilities, Trump\u2019s next step is to present what amounts to a narrative of redemptive hate. Here, Trump offers to assuage the voter\u2019s fears through a mechanism of separation, as he erects a rhetorical wall between the desirable \u201cus\u201d and the undesirable \u201cthem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pick one or the other<\/h2>\n

Trump\u2019s speech given in response to the Orlando shootings reveals exactly how a political rhetoric of fear can create a dangerous rhetoric of division and anger.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s rhetoric of fear begins with a framing device. He instructs his listeners to choose between two competing ideologies. They can continue to hold onto a \u201cpolitically correct<\/a>\u201d worldview that makes it impossible to call a bad guy a bad guy, which, according to his (convoluted) logic, allows terror to happen. Or they can embrace his worldview, which will \u201cstraighten things out\u201d and \u201cmake America great again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Law professor Molly Wilson has pointed out how<\/a> language that nudges listeners towards a particular option can be exceptionally persuasive, because it can cause individuals to change their minds far beyond their original preferences. In short, choices can be inspired \u2013 and limited \u2013 based on how they are presented.<\/p>\n

If you ask your toddler whether he would prefer a turkey sandwich or tomato soup for lunch, you have framed his choices and limited his options. As adults, we know there are other choices he would probably prefer, like ice cream. But even there, you have set a misleading frame, because turkey sandwiches and tomato soup are hardly the only healthy choices for lunch, nor is ice cream the only unhealthy one that is available.<\/p>\n

Politicians do the same thing in their rhetorical framing of issues, Trump markedly so. The way Trump presents it, you can either have political correctness and terror or insensitivity and freedom. To put it more bluntly, you can have Muslims and death or no Muslims and life. There are no other options.<\/p>\n

A world on fire, a foe shared by all<\/h2>\n

Having set out this black and white worldview, Trump raises the stakes again by using apocalyptic language.<\/p>\n

Just minutes into his June 13 speech about the Orlando attack, he aroused the possibility that \u2013 unless he\u2019s elected president \u2013 the United States might cease to exist.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t get tough and if we don\u2019t get smart, and fast, we\u2019re not going to have our country anymore,\u201d he said. \u201cThere will be nothing, absolutely nothing, left.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to framing, rhetoricians refer to premises like the one Trump makes here as argumentum in terrorem<\/a>, which is a form of logical fallacy stipulating that the failure to accept a premise will result in irreparable harm.<\/p>\n

Studies have shown how when people are afraid, they tend to overestimate the probability that the thing feared will really happen<\/a>. Wilson, the political framing expert, also notes that people are irrationally intolerant of risk when there is a potential for catastrophe. And Trump\u2019s rhetoric is rife with catastrophic possibility.<\/p>\n

Finally, while Trump establishes fear through his apocalyptic words, he transforms that fear into actionable anger by creating a common enemy. In the Orlando speech, the common enemy is the Muslim. At other times in the campaign, Trump has demonized Latinos<\/a> to similar effect.<\/p>\n

The famed rhetorical theorist Kenneth Burke once critiqued Adolf Hitler\u2019s tome \u201cMein Kampf.\u201d<\/a> There, Burke observed that \u201cmen (sic) who unite on nothing else can unite on the basis of a foe shared by all.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Trump, the enemy is the Muslim, whether he\u2019s a terrorist or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Muslims have to work with us\u2026 They know what\u2019s going on. They know that [the Orlando shooter] was bad. They knew the people in San Bernardino were bad. But you know what? They didn\u2019t turn them in,\u201d he said the day after the Orlando shooting.<\/p>\n

This is the rhetorical creation of a nameless, faceless enemy to fear. The gunman from Orlando has faded from view. Indeed, Trump goes so far as to say he\u2019ll \u201cnever say his name,\u201d leaving the listener to connect the dots and oppose anyone who might be like him in the least.<\/p>\n

And so the circle is complete. Fear becomes anger. Anger becomes hate.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Stephanie A. Martin<\/a>, Assistant Professor of Corporate Communication and Public Affairs, Southern Methodist University<\/a><\/em> and Christopher Salinas<\/a>, Senior Lecturer and Director of Public Discourse, Southern Methodist University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephanie A. Martin, Southern Methodist University and Christopher Salinas, Southern Methodist University Donald Trump\u2019s remarks in the aftermath of the Orlando shooting massacre \u2013 especially the reiteration of his call to temporarily ban Muslim immigration to the United States \u2013 angered leaders across America\u2019s political spectrum. \u201cThis is not just a national security issue,\u201d Trump […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":4717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,38],"tags":[485,479,696,699,701,700,228,697,461,695,698,661],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4716"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4716"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4718,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4716\/revisions\/4718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}