On July 27, Dr. Annie Hill will deliver a Rhetoric Unbound lecture. Dr. Hill’s talk, entitled “No Kings?: Trump’s Tyrannical Rhetoric,” will take place at 8.00 p.m. Eastern. The lecture will last 30 minutes and will be followed by discussion.
Lecture Description
Unstinting in its rhetoric, the Declaration of Independence accuses King George III of “a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.” The Declaration discursively constructs the right to abolish any government that “becomes destructive” to the people’s unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Although tyrannical leaders–be they Kings or Presidents–claim to make people safe, the Declaration pinpoints tyranny as a mortal risk to security. Yet, in the twenty-first century, there is a clamor for the strongman leader whose appeal lies in his instability, in his no-one-knows-what-next style of insecure rule. In this paper, I argue that President Donald J. Trump’s tyrannical rhetoric persuades not only due to its contempt for Democrats, immigrants, disabled people, sexual and racial minorities, and women, to name just a few, but also due to the comfort that destabilizing claims give his supporters. Contributing to research on the material and symbolic harms unleashed by Trump, I examine how tyrannical rhetoric comforts, as well as torments, and therein lies its power to promise security while breaking the bonds of democracy.
Register for Dr. Hill’s Lecture
Click here to register for Dr. Hill’s lecture.
Rhetoric Unbound 