BHerreraBlog

Trump’s Impact on Political Discourse Final Draft

Benjamin Herrera

Professor Graves

ENG 2150

4/3/2019

The Trump Phenomenon’s Impact on American Political Discourse

According to a June 2018 poll done by Rasmussen Reports, 31% of Americans think a second U.S Civil War is likely to occur in the next five years, with 11% of those saying it’s very likely. Furthermore, according to a October 2018 NBC News poll, 80% of Americans believe the country is “mainly” or “totally” divided. When voters were asked why they thought the country is so divided, the two most popular answers (by a significant margin) were first Donald Trump and then the Democratic Party/Liberals. As one can deduce from this information, the United States is experiencing a period of deep civil unrest and political polarization. This level of unrest has been increasing rapidly starting with the 2016 U.S Presidential Election and has had a profound impact on the way Americans organize around and discuss politics. Donald Trump’s arrival on the political scene has resulted in a significant widening of the overton window, the realm of political discourse which contains political ideas and policies which society deems acceptable. Trump’s abrupt acceptance of extreme conservative political ideas in addition to his extreme antics has resulted in the left doubling down in adopting extreme ideas on the other side of the political spectrum. In this paper, I will be exploring how Donald Trump’s election has changed our political discourse by making Americans more polarized to right and left “echo chambers”, to have a more intense discourse surrounding racism, sexism, immigration, to focus more on politicians’ character, and have a decreased amount of faith in the media.

Soon after announcing his presidential campaign, Trump made the now infamous statement, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best; they’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” He went on to further say that in order to solve this problem of illegal immigration, he was going to build a massive wall along the U.S/Mexico Border, and have Mexico pay for all of it. Shocking though it may sound (I joke), these comments, or anything resembling the extremity of these comments, have never been said by any politician or person running for president in modern American history regarding the topic of immigration. He completely shifted the overton window. Then, to the surprise of many Americans, he received massive support. One month after making those comments, his popularity in the national Republican primary polls went from 3.6% to 16.8%. Despite his popularity, he was not taken seriously by conservative network Fox News and during this time in his campaign, he was having public feuds with Fox News personality Megyn Kelly. He complained that the network treated him unfairly and even refused to participate in a Republican debate hosted by Fox News. Although not embraced by Fox News or other mainstream conservative networks yet, Trump’s extreme comments had sparked something in a large number of the electorate to warrant their support. On the other hand, his immigration comments sparked massive backlash from democrats. In response, then presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said in reference to Trump, “Recently a Republican candidate for president described immigrants as drug dealers, rapists and criminals. Maybe he’s never met them. Maybe he’s never stopped to ask the millions of people who love this country, work hard, and want nothing more than a chance to build a better life for themselves and their children what their lives are like.” Trump created this political divide by using fearmongering of the other to gain support. According to an article written in Psychology today by Ph.D. psychologist Bobby Azarian, Terror Management Theory helps explain support for Trump’s immigration comments. Terror Management Theory, as Azarian describes it, is “Terror Management Theory predicts that when people are reminded of their own mortality, which happens with fear mongering, they will more strongly defend those who share their worldviews and national or ethnic identity, and act out more aggressively towards those who do not.” It is this inclination towards this that Trump supporters have that is contributing to this political and civil unrest.

Furthermore, there is considerable evidence that Trump has profoundly impacted the way in which Americans talk about their politicians. According to a pew research poll done in October 2017, 69% of news coverage about Donald Trump is about the merits of his leadership and character, not his policy substance. This is considerably higher than other modern presidents with President Obama being closest behind at 50% and President Bush being only at 35%. From this data, it is hard to tell whether it is an active bias of the media to only focus on Trump’s character. It is very likely however that Trump’s extreme antics are so out of the ordinary that they garner the media attention over any policy substance. It also could be that Trump simply does not have much policy substance and that his main selling point to his supporters is his character and broad rhetoric. His brash persona is why they vote for him. Whether the answer is only one of these things or a mix of them, it is clear that Trump is certainly changing the degree to which we focus on the character of a politcian instead of their policies. In fact, it could be argued that the reason why Trump was able to defeat his Republican competition was because of his character. One Washington Post study done in June 2016 had participants watch forty minutes of clips from different presidential candidates, and through monitoring the brain activity of the participants, it found out that Donald Trump has a unique ability to keep people engaged. This trait of Trump’s is one of the reasons that Azarian attributes to Trump’s popularity. Eventually, the Republican party broadly combined to support Trump, especially mainstream conservative networks such as Fox News. It can be deduced that since the Trump “formula” worked so well for them last time, they will stick to it in future elections and push candidates based more on character rather than policy substance. The ramifications of this shift to focusing on politicians’ character will very likely impact future elections to come.

Another very important way in which Trump has changed our political discourse has to do with how Americans talk about Islam, muslims, and terrorism. Early on in his campaign, Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” Like with his statement regarding illegal immigrants from Mexico, this is a statement that is out of the overton window and has never been stated by a politician in modern American history. One of the reasons why this statement was so extreme is because it breaks with one of America’s fundamental traditions: freedom of religion. This is written into our constitution and our national history that there is no religious test for citizenship. The fact that this statement, which is at such odds with American tradition, was made by a person who went on to become president shows how much the political discourse has changed. I am not suggesting that Trump invented Islamophobia in America, as there are many examples in U.S history (unfortunately this is especially true post 9/11). However Trump has introduced the idea of banning all Muslims into the everyday political discourse and has taken advantage of the fear many feel in America towards terrorism.

In response to all of the extreme ways in which President Trump is opening up the political discourse, Democrats and those who oppose him have gone further to the left. The anti-Trump sentiment among those on the left has been a unifying cause for them to gather around. The prominent national best selling book What Do We Do Now: Standing up for your Rights in Trump’s America, a book containing a collection of writings from leading progressives (such as Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Ilhan Omar, Gloria Steinem, etc.) about what those who oppose Trump should do and what ideas they should push. This book is organized into chapters specifically dealing with the different relevant topics of this era of civil unrest such as racial justice, immigration, women’s rights, religious freedom, climate change, etc. This is indicative of the positioning of the left farther to the left. Bernie Sanders’ ideas of universal healthcare, universal higher education, more progressive tax rates, etc. have been gaining traction in the polls among Democrats. This can be seen by looking at a poll done by Gallup in which they tracked Bernie Sanders’ favorable rating from March 2015 to September 2018. While in March 2015, Bernie Sanders only had a favorable rating of 12% of Americans, in September 2018 he has gone all the way up to a 53% favorable rating. It can be inferred that the reason Bernie Sanders and his farther left ideas have gained more popularity is because they view these ideas as a way to fight back against Trump. This has even caused other Democratic candidates to move farther left in the upcoming 2020 election as a way to combat Trump and appeal to the left wing of the growing polarized electorate. An example of this is that multiple Democratic candidates for the 2020 Presidential Election such as Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Corey Booker have openly supported the idea of reparations to African-Americans for slavery and historical injustices. Similar to the ideas that Trump introduced into the political discourse, reparations was not an idea floating around in the mainstream political discourse. The reason they are doing this is because these farther left ideas are becoming more popular due to the “advent” of Donald Trump.

It has also been observed that Americans have been very polarized recently with regards to the news they consume and the news they reject. This can be seen in the prominent discussion surrounding “fake news” and its impact on Trump winning the 2016 presidential election. Many people have lost trust in the media and its ability to report accurate and unbiased information. According to polls done by Statistica, only 65% of those surveyed in 2018 said they trusted traditional media to just provide general news and information, and 54% of those surveyed in 2017 believed that fake news is a “significant” problem in the United States. It is likely that the reason for all of this is due to the numerous prominent hoax stories that have been pushed by and on different forms of news media including social media. Some of these hoax stories that have been pushed since the beginning of the 2016 election are stories like pizzagate, a highly discredity conspiracy theory in which high ranking Democrats were accused of running a child sex ring out of a pizza restaurant, Hillary Clinton selling weapons to ISIS, and Pope Francis endorsing Donald Trump for President. All of these stories were very prominent and widely talked about, yet very clearly untrue once one looks at the evidence. The story about Pope Francis endorsing Trump was particularly popular with hundreds of thousands of likes and comments on Facebook, along with 60% of people surveyed saying that they believed this story to be somewhat or very accurate. It is often said that we are experiencing a post-truth era, in which everyone only believes facts and information that is politically convienent for them, and ignores information that potentially refutes their narrative. If taken to be true, one of the contributing factors to this could be said to be President Trump himself. According to a study done by the Fact Checker’s Database, President Trump has made 9451 false or misleading claims from the time he assumed office in January 2017 up until April 2019. While it is certainly true that President Trump is not the only American president to have lied, it is still shocking to see the frequency at which President Trump does lie. In accordance with the theory of the overton window discussed earlier in this paper, it is likely that President Trump lying at the rate that he does has had a desensitizing affect on the American public and media to lies. It is likely true that it has further devalued the words of politicians and the media, and has resulted in people taking truths less seriously and supporting politicians based on tribal loyalty rather than an investigation of the truth.

One may wonder about the origins and nature of these changes that seem to be the result of Trump arriving on the political scene. First off, one has to consider whether these changes come as a direct result, or if these were bubbling underneath the surface and were always present. Trump merely just made it public and augmented it. In my personal opinion, I think the latter is more likely. These feelings that Trump is evoking in the public are nothing new in history. They have always been there, with variation in how prominent they are in the spotlight as major issues. I believe the nature of these changes and feelings in the public are mostly psychological and Trump is merely playing to these feelings’ advantage. There is merely a certain number of people who are proned to thinking in this particular way pschologically and Trump takes advantage.

In conclusion, President Donald Trump has set off a chain reaction in which American political discourse on issues such as immigration, islamophobia, and discussions around politicians have all changed significantly. Both sides of the political spectrum have widened the overton window and begun to indulge in ideas previously not common in mainstream political discourse.

 

Works Cited:

  • Terrill, Robert E.”The Post-Racial and Post-Ethical Discourse of Donald J. Trump.” Rhetoric & Public Affairs, vol. 20 no. 3, 2017, pp. 493-510. Project MUSE, muse.jhu.edu/article/677429.
  • Johnson, Dennis Loy, and Merians, Valerie. What We Do Now : Standing up for Your Values in Trump’s America. 2017. Print.
  • Kurtzeleben, D. (2019). NPR Choice page. [online] Npr.org. Available at: https://www.npr.org/2017/10/02/555092743/study-news-coverage-of-trump-more-negative-than-for-other-presidents [Accessed 25 Mar. 2019].
  • Azarian, B. (2019). A Complete Psychological Analysis of Trump’s Support. [online] Psychology Today. Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mind-in-the-machine/201812/complete-psychological-analysis-trumps-support [Accessed 25 Mar. 2019].
  • Kurtzleben, Danielle. “Study: News Coverage Of Trump More Negative Than For Other Presidents.” NPR, NPR, 2 Oct. 2017, www.npr.org/2017/10/02/555092743/study-news-coverage-of-trump-more-negative-than-for-other-presidents.
  • “The Mythology Of Trump’s ‘Working Class’ Support.” FiveThirtyEight, FiveThirtyEight, 3 May 2016, fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-mythology-of-trumps-working-class-support/.
  • Psychology Today. (2019). A Complete Psychological Analysis of Trump’s Support. [online] Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mind-in-the-machine/201812/complete-psychological-analysis-trumps-support
  • Rasmussen_Poll. “31% Think U.S. Civil War Likely Soon.” Rasmussen Reports, www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/june_2018/31_think_u_s_civil_war_likely_soon.
  • Americans Are Divided over Everything – except Division.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/americans-are-divided-over-everything-except-division-n922511.
  • LoGiurato, Brett. “THE LONG, WILD RIDE TO IOWA: How Donald Trump Set the Presidential Campaign on Fire.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 1 Feb. 2016, www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-presidential-campaign-iowa-caucus-polls-2016-1.
  • Sherman, Gabriel. “Donald Trump’s Newest Enemy: Fox News.” Intelligencer, Intelligencer, 7 Aug. 2015, nymag.com/intelligencer/2015/08/donald-trumps-newest-enemy-fox-news.html.
  • Rucker, Philip. “As Donald Trump Surges in Polls, Democrats Cheer.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 1 July 2015, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/donald-trump-surges-and-democrats-cheer/2015/07/01/895d9e9e-1f5d-11e5-84d5-eb37ee8eaa61_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.1962f3a7b246.
  • Gallup, Inc. “Americans Maintain a Positive View of Bernie Sanders.” Gallup.com, news.gallup.com/poll/243539/americans-maintain-positive-view-bernie-sanders.aspx.
  • Trust in News Sources North America 2018 | Statistic.” Statista, www.statista.com/statistics/620290/news-sources-trustworthiness/.
  • Kessler, Glenn, et al. “President Trump Has Made 6,420 False or Misleading Claims over 649 Days.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 2 Nov. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/11/02/president-trump-has-made-false-or-misleading-claims-over-days/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.154398a3bf75.

 

I believe the research I have conducted for my essay will help contribute to a cultural product my group can produce because my research deals with perhaps the defining feature of contemporary civil unrest in the United States, the polarization brought on by President Trump. My research looks into the reasoning and motivations behind the divide of those who support and oppose President Trump. This can be used, if we are making a story, to create characters who reflect real world people and can have similar motivations in this imaginary period of civil unrest to the real world one surrounding President Trump.