Trump’s Rhetorical Stonewalling Strategy
President
Donald J. Trump and members of his administration are stonewalling
on the issue of the Mueller report and subsequent congressional
investigations. Th...
‘Our’ Idiot President?
“I would like in the first place merely to point out that in the case of performative utterances, saying something stupid amounts to doing something stupid, an...
“Where Is This Coming From?” Beto O’Rourke’s Divine Inspiration
During the interview with Vanity Fair that launched his 2020 presidential campaign, Representative Beto O’Rourke described speaking at a rally as a sort of out-...
President [Noselaugh] Trump and the Question of Character
“It's demoralizing. It's unfair.”
Jan. 28, 2019, was her first day back at work in five weeks, yet the prospect of another shutdown loomed. A Sacramento TSA ...
Michael Cohen’s verbal somersault
This article originally appeared in The Conversation on February 27, 2019.
Michael Cohen, who admits to lying, also says he’s not a liar.
Can we separate ...
What Can ‘The Favourite’ Tell Us about the Rhetoric of Queer Letters?
With the Academy Awards scheduled for this week, there’s plenty of buzz about “The Favourite.” It tops this year’s nominations (alongside “Roma”) with 10, recei...
One Rhetorician’s Read of Trump’s Second State of the Union
There are eight observations that really stood out to me, a communication scholar of over 40 years, in watching President Trump’s State of the Union address on ...
Citizen Critics Live:
State of the Union
Throughout the 2019 State of the Union, six Citizen Critics brought their unique expertise and perspectives on political rhetoric and oratory. The evening's con...
In Defense of an Open Society
The New York Times celebrated a new year by updating its archive of the people, places, and things insulted by President Trump on Twitter. High on that list was...
Government #ShutDown and Stasis
American public discourse has worked itself into knots again. Amid the recent government shutdown and deliberation over President Trump’s wall, we seem to have ...