The words flying in the presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris were fierce, but the center of attention should be the visual rhetoric of Trump’s and Harris’ faces, with special attention to how images of their faces are…
Trump’s perverted and violent rhetoric requires a response
Donald Trump reposted a video to his personal social media website depicting President Joe Biden with his hands and feet tied together in the back of a pickup truck. Disgusting, but what’s new? Observing Trump’s perverse rhetorics — visual and…
Why did the Tennessee Congressman shout, “Goodbye to Palestine”?
What possessed Republican U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann to shout he would support Israel forever and “Goodbye to Palestine”? In a video shared widely on social media, Rep. Fleischmann is shown shouting, “Goodbye to Palestine,” amid an array of stridently pro-Israel declarations….
‘Vermin’: Trump crosses fully into Nazi territory
One of the most dangerous things about Donald Trump is the way he has normalized hate speech. The venom and vitriol come so often that even when it is reported, its extremism fails to register with a fatigued and desensitized…
The rhetorical genius of Rick Warren
I look forward to Rick Warren addressing the Southern Baptist Convention at its annual meeting in New Orleans, June 13-14. Warren deserves more credit for his decision to publicly dissent from the SBC ruling expelling the church he founded from…
The futility of framing one another as progressives and evangelicals, devils and dummies
In politics, “framing” is the attempt to alter reality by selecting words, slogans and tropes that convince the public to see the other side in a certain negative way. As Robert Entman explains, “To frame is to select some aspects of a perceived…
Is it time for another Gettysburg Address?
Our nation lives in suspended grief over 900,000 dead from COVID. Every day we go to the funeral home, the graveyard. Every day the bells toll for those who keep dying from COVID. Where are words of comfort? Is there…
Progressives have a problem telling their story
George Lakoff argues that progressives are in despair because they are trying to do 21st century politics with an 18th century mind. Progressives are clinging to an unworkable model of reason. Another of Aristotle’s persuasion tropes is sweeping across America –…
The violence of rhetoric in our toxic culture
Words have wings and fly where they please. Words provide unconscious but sometimes deadly after-effects the speaker can’t control. Most recently, Congress has censured Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., for his depiction of violent acts against other members of Congress and…