Abstract
How should we understand January 6th? We cannot understand January 6th without understanding the rhetoric-the arguments that President Trump made to persuade the public and his supporters-that the election was stolen from him. The “Stop the Steal” mantra was an argument that Trump laid out over seven months during the campaign in his interactions with the press, on Twitter, and through ad buys on Facebook and Instagram. Using conceptual theories of social imaginaries, the chapter contends that Trump’s rhetoric constructed a narrative aimed to sow doubt about the accuracy of the vote count and encourage his supporters to reject the electoral outcome, culminating in the attempted coup on January 6th. His rhetoric is contrasted with that of Joe Biden. The contrast underscores how distinctly antinormative Trump’s rhetoric was with regard to the value we hold around the vote.
Original language | English (US) |
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Title of host publication | Media and January 6th |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 54-60 |
Number of pages | 7 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9780197758564 |
ISBN (Print) | 9780197758526 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 1 2024 |
Keywords
- 2020 presidential election
- Donald Trump
- media
- rhetorical analysis
- social imaginary
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Social Sciences