Browsing by Subject "Presidential rhetoric."
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Item Barack Obama and the rhetoric of American exceptionalism : race, economy, security, and the exceptional rhetorical apparatus of sovereign power.(2012-08-08) McVey, J. Alexander.; Hahner, Leslie Ann.; Communication Studies.; Baylor University. Dept. of Communication Studies.This thesis examines President Barack Obama’s use of the rhetoric of American exceptionalism to establish authority for the exercise of sovereign power. I perform a close reading of three speeches to examine how Obama uses American exceptionalism to garner authority on issues of race, the economy, and national security. Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” speech demonstrates how Obama deploys the rhetoric of American exceptionalism to limit the rhetorical force of racial anger. The 2011 State of the Union illustrates how Obama rhetorically manipulates time to defend neoliberal economics through the rhetoric of American exceptionalism. Obama’s “Our Security, Our Values” speech shows how Obama uses the rhetoric of the rule of law to establish American exceptionalism as a durable rhetorical framework for ongoing actions in the war on terror. Together, these speeches demonstrate the importance of understanding how American exceptionalism functions in Obama’s rhetoric as a foundation for sovereign power.Item Economic frames : transitional rhetoric under Clinton, Bush, and Obama.(2013-09-16) Kurr, Jeffrey A.; Medhurst, Martin J.; Communication.; Baylor University. Dept. of Communication.During boom and bust periods, the dynamic status of the economy has become a perennial issue in the political arena. In this thesis, I engage in a rhetorical criticism analyzing how three presidents, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, rhetorically framed economic conditions to justify legislative solutions. I examine how each president prescribed policy solutions during his first months in office. In particular, I argue: Clinton constituted national identity around economic concerns to push his 1993 budget plan; Bush reinterpreted the nation-as-family metaphor to justify his 2001 tax cuts; and Obama injected crisis rhetoric into the American Dream to champion his 2009 stimulus. This analysis provides a foundation for understanding the econo-rhetorical leadership role of the president and the implications it has on framing congressional and public deliberation.Item The path to party unity : popular presidential leadership and principled consensus.(2014-06-11) Scully, Mark, A.; Nichols, David K.; Political Science.; Baylor University. Dept. of Political Science.This dissertation examines the role of presidential rhetoric in the process of partisan regime creation. I identify three types of presidential rhetoric: principled, ideological, and pragmatic. I contend that principled rhetoric is necessary to achieve the reconstruction of a new partisan regime. Furthermore, the two variant forms of presidential rhetoric—ideological and pragmatic—contribute to a specific pattern of regime destabilization and construction. That pattern begins with the emergence of an oppositional candidate employing ideological leadership while opposing the regime party and followed by a pragmatic response from the regime party. This combination of ideological rhetoric of the opposition party, which lacks broad appeal, and the broadly appealing pragmatic rhetoric of the regime party leads to an influx of interests and groups into the regime party’s coalition. Far from strengthening the regime party, however, the pragmatic rhetoric employed tends to confuse the partisan consensus that bound the party together, and that confusion leads to a period of regime destabilization. The vulnerability of the regime party creates an opportunity for a president employing principled rhetoric to reconstruct a new partisan regime. To demonstrate these variations in presidential leadership, as well as the specific pattern of regime reconstruction, I employ two case studies of major regime reconstruction in American history, which both reveal a common pattern of destabilization and reconstruction. The first begins with the ideological rhetoric of William Jennings Bryan, the pragmatic response of William McKinley, the party destabilization of the progressive era, and the principled reconstruction of Franklin Roosevelt. I then turn to the ideological rhetoric of Barry Goldwater, the pragmatic response of Lyndon Johnson, the party destabilization of the late 1960s and 1970s, and the principled reconstruction of Ronald Reagan. This dissertation demonstrates the power of presidential rhetoric to unify a political party behind a principled conception of the common good, as well as the power of rhetoric to drastically shift partisan dynamics by fragmenting the party into ideological or pragmatic factionalism.Item Spring as a seasonal political metaphor : the Prague and Arab Spring in presidential rhetoric.(2014-06-11) Cook, John W. (John William), 1989-; Gerber, Matthew G.; Communication.; Baylor University. Dept. of Communication.Presidential rhetoric has historically adopted the common metaphor of “spring as political change” which serves as a metonymic naming of political periods or events characterized by change and vitality. This “spring as political change” metaphor has been influential through history in naming a varied group of political activities and changes. This study focuses on “the Arab Spring” and the “Prague Spring” as “spring as political change” metaphors that have shaped and defined presidential rhetoric on the issues they purport to describe. In isolating the dimensions of the spring metaphor at work in presidential rhetoric, this study demonstrates that this “spring as political change” metaphor reflects and projects certain values in order to make the conclusions or associations of the rhetor appear natural, logical, or otherwise necessary to complete the metaphoric meanings initiated by this metaphor.Item Toward a rhetoric of symbolic reparations : overlapping genres in George W. Bush's apology for slavery.(2010-06-23T12:26:34Z) Wagner, Zachary R.; Gerber, Matthew G.; Communication Studies.; Baylor University. Dept. of Communication Studies.In 2003, George W. Bush apologized for slavery at Goree Island in Senegal, which was the site of the largest market for slaves during America's slave period. This apology contains both a mythic and a mundane frame for understanding the crime and sin of slavery, clearly separated by Bush's language choices. Examining both frames allows the best understanding of what Bush attempted to accomplish, displacing blame for a spiritual crime onto a mundane world. This conception allows him to create an America which is mythic, rewrite the historical narrative with black agency responsible for emancipation, and begin a process of identification which is at the heart of reconciliation rhetoric. He both atones and engages image-restoration discourse, and in doing so, avoids many of the criticisms leveled at other examples of both his epideictic discourse and general presidential rhetoric regarding slavery. The literature base surrounding the idea of reparations for slavery presents a clear space where this apology needs to go in order to move past the legacy of slavery and begin the process of reconciliation. I will examine here both the historical and current meanings of reparations, and show how Bush effectively engages reparations rhetoric. This form of symbolic reparations is important, because it is distinct from presidential apology, atonement, jeremiad, reconciliation, and other genres, even though it mixes many of the strategies normally associated with one or more of those forms. Understanding the message is critical to unraveling a complex historical narrative of race regarding Bush, and understanding the current state of United States relationship with slavery.