Good Riddance to America’s Authoritarian P. T. Barnum

A Showman-in-Chief Will Depart, but the Trumpian Spectacle Lives on

Goodbye to America’s Authoritarian P.T. Barnum | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Shortly before his supporters stormed the Capitol, interrupting the official congressional tally of the Electoral College votes, President Donald Trump gave a speech at the “Save America” rally. He promised his supporters that he would provide them with “evidence proving that we won this election” and, thus armed, that together they would march down to the Capitol and demand that only “legal votes” were counted.

“You’ll never take back our country with weakness,” Trump explained, “you have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”

Trump didn’t have any actual proof …

by Jennifer Mercieca | January 7, 2021

It’s Time for the U.S. to Manifest Humility

America's Political Crack-Up Is an Opportunity to Learn More From the Rest of the World

by Joe Mathews | October 7, 2020

Political hysteria has conquered America—and made the United States much more like the rest of the world.

So argued the London-based essayist and novelist Pankaj Mishra during a fast-paced and wide-ranging …

Why ‘Treason’ Usually Isn’t Treason

The Constitution Defines Treason Narrowly. That Hasn’t Stopped the Overblown Rhetoric

by Carlton F.W. Larson | September 30, 2020

The last four years have been a strange time to be a scholar of American treason law. The members of this tiny (and I mean really tiny) group used to …

When Presidential Silence Speaks Louder than Words

What We Can Learn From JFK’s Decision to Abandon a Speech on the Nuclear Crisis

by Thomas Bishop | August 27, 2020

President Trump’s speech before the Republican National Convention (RNC) will provide an interesting coda to a year marred by White House communication blunders. In March, as COVID-19 took over newsfeeds …

Why Does the 2020 Presidential Campaign Feel So Loud and Angry?

In an Age of 'Post-Rhetorical' Politics, Candidates Now Compete, Rather Than Cooperate, With the Media

by Jennifer Mercieca | March 15, 2020

Presidential candidates have long found ways to take their messages directly to the voters, by avoiding the filter of press coverage. But today, candidates have gone steps further, turning themselves …

How Three Texas Newspapers Manufactured Three Competing Images of Immigrants

In Depression-Era San Antonio, Polarized Portraits of Mexicans Appealed to the Biases of Readers

by Melita M. Garza | December 5, 2019

In August 1930, an editorial writer for the largest newspaper chain on Earth proclaimed: “THE FARMER rids his barn of rats, his hen-house of weasels … the government of the …

rhetoric