A Rhetoric of Divisive Partisanship


Book Description

A Rhetoric of Divisive Partisanship: The 2016 American Presidential Campaign Discourse of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump examines the campaign speeches of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump as they targeted members of the American public that were ideologically different but equally emotionally vulnerable. Each appealed to marginalized segments of the electorate, groups at opposite ends of the political spectrum, joined through a shared distrust and fear of politics instead of political or even party affiliation. Both Sanders and Trump polarized and reinforced their respective bases as “outsiders.” Both relied on anti-establishment arguments and discussions grounded in personal attacks against “enemies” during which they joined their target audiences as marginalized outsiders united through a desire to overthrow the status quo and re-claim America. The book expands on previous ideas about dialogue and political talk and asserts that rather than serving as a model of civic and civil discourse, the rhetoric of Sanders and Trump was reactionary and divisive, begun with different intentions and producing different results.




Divisive Discourse


Book Description

"Divisive Discourse challenges assumptions about political ideology. The book examines the techniques and contents of the divisive discourse that pervades contemporary American political conversation. It teaches us about extreme rhetoric, thus enabling readers to be more critical consumers of information. The book provides a framework for identifying and interpreting extreme language. Readers learn about rhetorical fallacies and the strategies used by political pundits to manipulate and spin information. In subsequent chapters the author examines and analyzes how divisive discourse is used in discussions of specific political issues including homosexual rights, gun control, and healthcare. Divisive Discourse provides insight into how divisive discourse leads to societal fragmentation, and fosters apathy, confusion, animosity, and ignorance. By exposing the rhetoric of division and teaching readers how to confront it, the book reinvigorates the potential to participate in politics and serves as a guide for how to have civil discussions about controversial issues. Divisive Discourse is an ideal teaching tool for anyone interested in contemporary issues and courses in political science, media studies, or rhetoric."--Page 4 of cover.




Stepping Forward


Book Description

The Hope We Share How do we bring people together when our society is breaking apart? What will it take to bridge our divides, overcome mistrust, and restore our belief that we can get things done together as Americans? How do we bring out the best in us? In Stepping Forward, Richard C. Harwood gives us a new and inspiring blueprint to rediscover what we share in common and actively build upon it. As a trusted civic voice, he argues that to get the country moving in the right direction, these efforts must start in our local communities. Harwood shows us how we can reach within and beyond ourselves to address our shared challenges and create more purpose and meaning in our lives by— • Being a part of something larger than ourselves and truly making a difference in our communities • Refocusing on the desire for good in each other • Unleashing a greater sense of shared responsibility • Finding the courage and humility to take such a path Americans are yearning for answers to the country’s rampant polarization, hate speech, and gridlock. Stepping Forward shows us how to channel our frustrations, energies, and aspirations to get on a more hopeful path.




The Death of Politics


Book Description

The New York Times opinion writer, media commentator, outspoken Republican and Christian critic of the Trump presidency offers a spirited defense of politics and its virtuous and critical role in maintaining our democracy and what we must do to save it before it is too late. “Any nation that elects Donald Trump to be its president has a remarkably low view of politics.” Frustrated and feeling betrayed, Americans have come to loathe politics with disastrous results, argues Peter Wehner. In this timely manifesto, the veteran of three Republican administrations and man of faith offers a reasoned and persuasive argument for restoring “politics” as a worthy calling to a cynical and disillusioned generation of Americans. Wehner has long been one of the leading conservative critics of Donald Trump and his effect on the Republican Party. In this impassioned book, he makes clear that unless we overcome the despair that has caused citizens to abandon hope in the primary means for improving our world—the political process—we will not only fall victim to despots but hasten the decline of what has truly made America great. Drawing on history and experience, he reminds us of the hard lessons we have learned about how we rule ourselves—why we have checks and balances, why no one is above the law, why we defend the rights of even those we disagree with. Wehner believes we can turn the country around, but only if we abandon our hatred and learn to appreciate and honor the unique and noble American tradition of doing “politics.” If we want the great American experiment to continue and to once again prosper, we must once more take up the responsibility each and every one of us as citizens share.




Vaccine Rhetorics


Book Description

Addresses the underlying rhetoric of vaccination debates by examining the full spectrum of viewpoints to develop a nuanced way forward.







Hegemony, Security Infrastructures and the Politics of Crime


Book Description

This book examines the politics of crime and the response to it in Potchefstroom, a small settler colonial city in South Africa. It draws on the city’s everyday practices and experiences to offer local bottom-up insights into security beyond the state. The book provides a comprehensive understanding of security beyond the state and how security workers and residents experience and perceive their own security practices, their daily interactions with other security providers which influences power dynamics between those who express fear through various platforms and those deemed potential criminals. It aids in re-conceptualising violence and security governance in South Africa with a view to analysing the processes of crime prevention and management, the changing nature of public and private spaces and how these spaces interact with state and local authorities. In a rigorous exploration of the ways to tackle the complex problem of crime, the book critiques an overreliance on security infrastructures such as social media, gated barriers, neighbourhood residents’ associations and private security companies. It also looks at how crime is treated as an individual as opposed to a societal problem. The book addresses the urgent need for collaboration across these fault lines to promote a more inclusive security in a broader fragmented social and political context. With a novel analytical approach based on the twin optics of infrastructure and post-structural hegemony, the book will be relevant to scholars and students of South African politics and critical security studies, as well as international audience interested in crime and private security.




Speaking Hatefully


Book Description

In Speaking Hatefully, David Boromisza-Habashi focuses on the use of the term “hate speech” as a window on the cultural logic of political and moral struggle in public deliberation. This empirical study of gyűlöletbeszéd, or "hate speech," in Hungary documents competing meanings of the term, the interpretive strategies used to generate those competing meanings, and the parallel moral systems that inspire political actors to question their opponents’ interpretations. In contrast to most existing treatments of the subject, Boromisza-Habashi’s argument does not rely on pre-existing definitions of "hate speech." Instead, he uses a combination of ethnographic and discourse analytic methods to map existing meanings and provide insight into the sociocultural life of those meanings in a troubled political environment.




MN3 - Intermediate Speech Collection


Book Description

This third sub-collection, called The Fifty Endings, contains not fifty suttas, but fifty-two. It is also divided into five chapters: the Chapter Beginning with Devadha, the Chapter Beginning in One by One, the Chapter Beginning by Cessation, the Chapter on Analysis, and the Chapter on the Six Senses. Outstanding in this subcollection are the suttas MN 117 The Forty Great Ones, which is a summary of the Noble Eightfold Path, MN 118 The Instructions for Breathing Practice and MN 121 Brief Discourse on Cessation, which explains the levels of mystical practice. These suttas contain the most doctrinal content of the Collection of Intermediate Discourses. On the spurious side, the suttas MN 123 which incorporates with baroque tints the very late legend of the real origin of the Buddha together with MN 142 which, in addition, serves to give a falsified doctrinal cover to donate to the bhikkhus in any circumstance even if they are evil individuals in disguise.




MN2 - Intermediate Speech Collection


Book Description

This second sub-collection, called The Middle Fifty, contains fifty suttas and is divided into five chapters: the Chapter on Family Heads, the Chapter on Bhikkhus, the Chapter on Ascetics, the Chapter on Kings and the Chapter on Brahmins. Continuing to complete the early autobiography are the suttas MN 85 With Prince Bodhi and MN 100 With Saṅgārava. In all there are five suttas that center and give historical context to the Buddha. The insistent repetition indicates their importance. On the spurious side, the suttas MN 91 and MN 92 stand out, in which the Buddha appears determined to show his penis with phimosis and his very long tongue with which he could clean his ears. All in order to affirm that he supposedly had the legendary 32 marks of the great man, a myth that apparently goes back to Gilgamesh. MN 95 insists on it again. Also surprising in MN 84 Conversation at Madhurā and MN 94 with Ghoṭamukha, the insistence on taking as Master an extinct Buddha in a pair of extemporaneous suttas starring strangers where the plot happens at an indeterminate time after the Buddha's parinibbāna.