The Religious Rhetoric of U.S. Presidential Candidates
The Religious Rhetoric of U.S. Presidential Candidates

Author: Arnaud Vincent

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-08-21

Total Pages: 116

ISBN-13: 0429638450

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Drawing on corpus linguistic methods of analysis, this book critically examines the "rhetorical God gap" in American political discourse between the Democratic and Republican parties. The volume investigates the claims (which have often not been substantiated by quantitative data in the literature and have tended to focus on particular genres of political discourse) that there is a correlation between a higher degree of religiosity in Republican political discourse and voting preferences for the party and that Democratic politicians should engage in similar discourse toward "closing" the gap. The book adopts a keyword approach, using such techniques as collocation analyses, concordance reading, and Bible-specific N-gram identification, toward the study of a corpus of general campaign speeches over a 50-year period, and links findings from this data with social and cultural contextual factors to provide a more informed understanding of rhetorical patterns in religiously laden political language. The volume showcases the value of corpus linguistic methods in interrogating claims around political language and their broader applicability in linguistic research, making this key reading for students and scholars in corpus linguistics, critical discourse analysis, American politics, and religious studies.

Religious Rhetoric and American Politics
Religious Rhetoric and American Politics

Author: Christopher B. Chapp

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2012-11-15

Total Pages: 191

ISBN-13: 0801465249

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From Reagan's regular invocation of America as "a city on a hill" to Obama's use of spiritual language in describing social policy, religious rhetoric is a regular part of how candidates communicate with voters. Although the Constitution explicitly forbids a religious test as a qualification to public office, many citizens base their decisions about candidates on their expressed religious beliefs and values. In Religious Rhetoric and American Politics, Christopher B. Chapp shows that Americans often make political choices because they identify with a "civil religion," not because they think of themselves as cultural warriors. Chapp examines the role of religious political rhetoric in American elections by analyzing both how political elites use religious language and how voters respond to different expressions of religion in the public sphere. Chapp analyzes the content and context of political speeches and draws on survey data, historical evidence, and controlled experiments to evaluate how citizens respond to religious stumping. Effective religious rhetoric, he finds, is characterized by two factors—emotive cues and invocations of collective identity—and these factors regularly shape the outcomes of American presidential elections and the dynamics of political representation. While we tend to think that certain issues (e.g., abortion) are invoked to appeal to specific religious constituencies who vote solely on such issues, Chapp shows that religious rhetoric is often more encompassing and less issue-specific. He concludes that voter identification with an American civic religion remains a driving force in American elections, despite its potentially divisive undercurrents.

God Wills it
God Wills it

Author: David O'Connell

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-05

Total Pages: 515

ISBN-13: 1351517112

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God Wills It is a comprehensive study of presidential religious rhetoric. Using careful analysis of hundreds of transcripts, David O'Connell reveals the hidden strategy behind presidential religious speech. He asks when and why religious language is used, and when it is, whether such language is influential.Case studies explore the religious arguments presidents have made to defend their decisions on issues like defense spending, environmental protection, and presidential scandals. O'Connell provides strong evidence that when religious rhetoric is used public opinion typically goes against the president, the media reacts harshly to his words, and Congress fails to do as he wants. An experimental chapter casts even further doubt on the persuasiveness of religious rhetoric.God Wills It shows that presidents do not talk this way because they want to. Presidents like Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush were quite uncomfortable using faith to promote their agendas. They did so because they felt they must. God Wills It shows that even if presidents attempt to call on the deity, the more important question remains: Will God come when they do?

Presidential Campaign Rhetoric in an Age of Confessional Politics
Presidential Campaign Rhetoric in an Age of Confessional Politics

Author: Brian T. Kaylor

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2010-12-28

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 073914880X

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When a Bible-quoting Sunday School teacher, Jimmy Carter, won the 1976 presidential election, it marked the start of a new era of presidential campaign discourse. The successful candidates since then have followed Carter's lead in publicly testifying about their personal religious beliefs and invoking God to justify their public policy positions and their political visions. With this new confessional political style, the candidates have repudiated the former perspective of a civil-religious contract that kept political leaders from being too religious and religious leaders from being too political. Presidential Campaign Rhetoric in the Age of Confessional Politics analyzes the religious-political discourse used by presidential nominees from 1976-2008, and then describes key characteristics of their confessional rhetoric that represent a substantial shift from the tenets of the civil-religious contract. This new confessional political style is characterized by religious-political rhetoric that is testimonial, partisan, sectarian, and liturgical in nature. In order to understand why candidates have radically adjusted their God talk on the campaign trail, important religious-political shifts in American society since the 1950s are examined, which demonstrate the rhetorical demands evangelical religious leaders have placed upon our would-be national leaders. Brian T. Kaylor utilizes Michel Foucault's work on the confession_with theoretical adjustments_to critique the significant problems of the confessional political era. With clear analyses and unsettling relevance, Kaylor's critique of contemporary political discourse will rouse the interest and concern of engaged citizens everywhere.

The Podium, the Pulpit, and the Republicans
The Podium, the Pulpit, and the Republicans

Author: Frederick Stecker

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2011-07-22

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 0313382514

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In this book, the presidential debates of 2000, 2004, and 2008 are analyzed in terms of linguistics, rhetoric, and religious context to offer a unique perspective on the styles, beliefs, and strategies of the two major parties and their candidates. In The Podium, the Pulpit, and the Republicans: How Presidential Candidates Use Religious Language in American Political Debate, a veteran minister analyzes the religious metaphors Republicans use at the podium and alleges that the party deliberately employs blaming tactics, fear metaphors, and coded references to apocalyptic judgment to sway undecided voters. Over the past 40 years, Frederick Stecker charges, the Republican Party has created fear for political expediency. Stecker's book traces the development of the Republican rhetoric of polarization and applies the linguistics-based "nation-as-a-family" political typology of George Lakoff to an analysis of the presidential debates of 2000, 2004, and 2008. He demonstrates how Republican candidates select their language and metaphors to signal adherence to rigid belief systems and simple, black-and-white choices in domestic and foreign policy.

Religious influence on American politics. The 2016 elections in context
Religious influence on American politics. The 2016 elections in context

Author: Madi Brietzke

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2016-06-29

Total Pages: 24

ISBN-13: 3668249164

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Essay from the year 2015 in the subject Politics - Region: USA, , language: English, abstract: The influence of religion on the American political landscape has for a long time been a subject of inquiry. Past findings and existing theories on the sociology of religion maintain two opposing views on the way that religion has influenced contemporary American politics. However, a closer review of the US system reveals an apparent commanding influence of religion on dominant religious rhetoric and voting patterns. Polarization has worked to motivate the masses to approve of foreign policies and even war in the case of the events after the 9/11 attacks when America invaded Iraq and Afghanistan. At the present polarization continues to be a motivating element for religious rhetoric and possibly voting patterns considering the 2016 elections. Trump being the leading republican presidential contender is an example of the influence of religion in the US politics, considering his wholesale war propaganda on Islam. His stance and political status at the present is going to play a major role in the final outcome. It is based on this premise that we suggest the ongoing influence of religion on American politics in the 2016 US presidential elections will guide the result.

Religious Rhetoric in US Right-Wing Politics
Religious Rhetoric in US Right-Wing Politics

Author: Chiara M. Migliori

Publisher:

Published: 2022

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9783030965518

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"The subject of this book is an extremely timely and important one. Migliori's work is the first large-scale qualitative study of how and why religious conservatism bolstered support for Trump despite his overt character flaws. Understanding the Trump phenomenon is absolutely essential due to its unprecedented nature in the U.S. and its similarity to right-wing authoritarian politics in other national contexts." - Laura Olson, Thurmond Professor of Political Science, Clemson University, USA This book seeks to understand white conservative Christians' support for Donald Trump, using their own words. Drawing on the triangular relationship between the 45th president, and his voters, and religious organizations, this work investigates the creation of the tale of Trump as the protector and enhancer of Christian values. The first part of the book discusses in detail the white conservative Christian constituency in the United States, and the development of feelings of displacement and resentment fostered by intergroup threat and nationalism. The central part focuses on the actor known as the "Religious Right," through the rhetoric of one of their most representative organizations in the twenty-first century. The final part focuses on the character of Donald Trump and his peculiar relationship with religious discourse. The book demonstrates that while such discourse is expected of Trump as a Republican candidate, his approach to it is characterized by detachment and sloganized exploitation of Christian symbols. Ultimately, the book highlights the cultural tools that are crucial in the reproduction of structures of inequality and the ways they have been used by conservative politicians and groups to accumulate power. Chiara M. Migliori earned her PhD in 2020 from the Graduate School of North American Studies, John F. Kennedy Institute, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.

The Moral Rhetoric of American Presidents
The Moral Rhetoric of American Presidents

Author: Colleen J. Shogan

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2007-09-17

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 1585446394

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Although sometimes decried by pundits, George W. Bush’s use of moral and religious rhetoric is far from unique in the American presidency. Throughout history and across party boundaries, presidents have used such appeals, with varying degrees of political success. The Moral Rhetoric of American Presidents astutely analyzes the president’s role as the nation’s moral spokesman. Armed with quantitative methods from political science and the qualitative case study approach prevalent in rhetorical studies, Colleen J. Shogan demonstrates that moral and religious rhetoric is not simply a reflection of individual character or an expression of American “civil religion” but a strategic tool presidents can use to enhance their constitutional authority. To determine how the use of moral rhetoric has changed over time, Shogan employs content analysis of the inaugural and annual addresses of all the presidents from George Washington through George W. Bush. This quantitative evidence shows that while presidents of both parties have used moral and religious arguments, the frequency has fluctuated considerably and the language has become increasingly detached from relevant policy arguments. Shogan explores the political effects of the rhetorical choices presidents make through nine historical cases (Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Buchanan, Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Carter). She shows that presidents who adapt their rhetoric to the political conditions at hand enhance their constitutional authority, while presidents who ignore political constraints suffer adverse political consequences. The case studies allow Shogan to highlight the specific political circumstances that encourage or discourage the use of moral rhetoric. Shogan concludes with an analysis of several dilemmas of governance instigated by George W. Bush’s persistent devotion to moral and religious argumentation.

Religion, Race, and the American Presidency
Religion, Race, and the American Presidency

Author: Gaston Espinosa

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Published: 2008-08-22

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 0742563480

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The role that race and religion play in American presidential elections is attracting national attention like never before. The 2008 presidential candidates reached out to an unprecedented number of racial and religious voting constituencies including African Americans, Latinos, Muslims, Mainline Protestants, Catholics, Evangelicals, Jews, women, the non-religious, and more. Religion, Race, and the American Presidency focuses on the roles of these racial and religious groups in presidential elections over the last forty years, and in elections since 2000 in particular. Drawing upon survey data, interviews, and case studies of recent presidents, the contributors examine the complicated relationships between American presidents and key racial and religious groups. The paperback edition features a new capstone chapter on the 2008 elections. Contributions by Brian Robert Calfano, David G. Dalin, Paul A. Djupe, Gastón Espinosa, John C. Green, Melissa V. Harris-Lacewell, Lyman A. Kellstedt, So Young Kim, David C. Leege, Laura R. Olson, Corwin Smidt, Katherine E. Stenger, and Adam L. Warber.