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The Dark Power of Words: Stratagems of Hate in the 2016 Presidential Campaign

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The 2016 US Presidential Campaign

Part of the book series: Political Campaigning and Communication ((PCC))

Abstract

The election of 2016 stands out for its volume of hate-filled messages. The election changed the climate for discourse throughout society. In this chapter, the authors identify the hate stratagems used by both the Trump and Clinton campaigns as well as how they functioned in the course of the election. Kirk and Martin argue that the use of hate stratagems prevented discussion of policy issues during the general election campaign. They conclude by evaluating the impact of hate speech on civil discourse, the media, and self-governance.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    George Orwell, “The Freedom of the Press,” in Animal Farm (London: The Times Literary Supplement, 1972).

  2. 2.

    David Slayden Rita Kirk Whillock, ed. Hate Speech (Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications, Inc.,1995).

  3. 3.

    Alex Sproveri Daniel M. Shea, “The Rise and Fall of Nasty Politics in America,” Cambridge Core 45, no. 3 (2012). Catherine H. Zuckert Michael P. Zuckert, Leo Strauss and the Problem of Political Philosophy (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2014).

  4. 4.

    Jae-Jin Lee, “Understanding hate speech as a communication phenomenon: Another view on campus speech code issues,” Communications and the Law, (Volume 19, Issue: 2, 1997), p. 55.

  5. 5.

    Mari J. Matsuda, “Public Response to Racist Speech: Considering the Victim’s Story,” Michigan Law Review, (August, 1989), p. 2320.

  6. 6.

    Whillock, “The use of hate as a stratagem for achieving political and social goals,” in Hate Speech, (Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publciations Inc., 1995), p. 29.

  7. 7.

    Stuart Rothenberg, “The Unusual, Unexpected, Strange, Weird and Now Bizarre Presidential Election,” The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/10/05/the-unusual-unexpected-strange-weird-and-now-bizarre-presidential-election/?utm_term=.3fe3f6ff8950.

  8. 8.

    David Corn, “This Election Is a Referendum on Hate,” Mother Jones, http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/11/this-election-is-a-referendum-on-hate-donald-trump-hillary-clinton; Patrik Jonsson, “How Americans Are Handling Post Election Hate,” The Christian Science Monitor http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2016/1112/How-Americans-are-handling-post-election-hate; DP Opinion, “Please Stop the Hate That This Election Has Uneashed” The Denver Post, http://www.denverpost.com/2016/11/16/please-stop-the-hate-that-this-election-has-unleashed/.

  9. 9.

    Bond v. Floyd, 385 U.S. 116 (1966).

  10. 10.

    Real Clear Politics, “Real Clear Politics’ Poll of Polls,” (2016), http://www.realclearpolitics.com/elections/2016/#!.

  11. 11.

    “Ten Days After: Harassment and Intimidation in the Aftermath of the Election,” Southern Poverty Law Center, https://www.splcenter.org/20161129/ten-days-after-harassment-and-intimidation-aftermath-election.

  12. 12.

    “The Trump Effect: The Impact of the 2016 Presidential Election on Our Nation’s Schools,” Southern Poverty Law Center, https://www.splcenter.org/20161128/trump-effect-impact-2016-presidential-election-our-nations-schools.

  13. 13.

    Whillock.

  14. 14.

    Kenneth Burke, A Rhetoric of Motives (Los Angeles University of California Press, 1969), 19-21.

  15. 15.

    Kenneth Burke, The Philosophy of Literary Form: Studies in Symbolic Action (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1974); ibid.; Thomas E. Patterson, “Harvard Study: Policy Issues Nearly Absent in Presidential Campaign Coverage,” The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/harvard-study-policy-issues-nearly-absent-in-presidential-campaign-coverage-65731.

  16. 16.

    Derek Thompson, “Donald Trump and the Twilight of White America,” The Atlantic, http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/donald-trump-and-the-twilight-of-white-america/482655/.

  17. 17.

    Tim Henderson, “Fewer Manufacturing Jobs, Housing Bust Haunt Many U.S. Counties,” The Pew Charitable Trusts, http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2016/01/22/fewer-manufacturing-jobs-housing-bust-haunt-many-us-counties.

  18. 18.

    TIME Staff, “Here’s Donald Trump’s Presidential Announcement Speech,” TIME, http://time.com/3923128/donald-trump-announcement-speech/.

  19. 19.

    Ibid.

  20. 20.

    Alexander Burns, “Donald Trump, Pushing Someone Rich, Offers Himself,” The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/17/us/politics/donald-trump-runs-for-president-this-time-for-real-he-says.html?_r=0.

  21. 21.

    Michelle Ye Hee Lee, “Donald Trump’s False Comments Connecting Mexican Immigrants and Crime,” The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/07/08/donald-trumps-false-comments-connecting-mexican-immigrants-and-crime/?utm_term=.967220e8ebe7.

  22. 22.

    Ibid.

  23. 23.

    Amy Mitchell and Jesse Holcomb Michael Barthel, “Many Americans Believe Fake News Is Sowing Confusion,” Pew Research Center, http://www.journalism.org/2016/12/15/many-americans-believe-fake-news-is-sowing-confusion/.

  24. 24.

    Lee, Michelle Ye Hee. “Donald Trump’s False Comments Connecting Mexican Immigrants and Crime,” Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/07/08/donald-trumps-false-comments-connecting-mexican-immigrants-and-crime/?utm_term=.607dae048f07.

  25. 25.

    Clive Hamilton, “Political Correctness: Its Origins and the Backlash against It August 30, 2015,” The Conversation (August 30, 2015), https://theconversation.com/political-correctness-its-origins-and-the-backlash-against-it-46862.

  26. 26.

    Real Clear Politics, “Real Clear Politics’ Poll of Polls.”

  27. 27.

    Katie Reilly, “Read Hillary Clinton’s ‘Basket of Deplorables’ Remarks About Donald Trump Supporters,” TIME, http://time.com/4486502/hillary-clinton-basket-of-deplorables-transcript/.

  28. 28.

    “Meet the Press-Sept. 11, 2016,” NBC News, http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meet-press-sept-11-2016-n646441. “09/11/16: September 11th, 2001 and the Impact on Today’s World,” ABC. “Face the Nation Transcript September 11, 2016: Brennan Nunes,” CBS News, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/face-the-nation-transcript-september-11-2016-brennan-nunes/.

  29. 29.

    Rita Kirk Whillock, ed. Hate Speech, 39.

  30. 30.

    Ibid, 30.

  31. 31.

    TVTropes.org, “Heel,” TV Tropes, http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Heel.

  32. 32.

    Amit Praseed, “What Does Turning Heel in Wrestling Mean?” Quora, https://www.quora.com/What-does-turning-heel-in-wrestling-mean.

  33. 33.

    Dan P. McAdams, “The Mind of Donald Trump,” The Atlantic, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/06/the-mind-of-donald-trump/480771/; Adam Gopnik, “Donald Trump: Narcissist, Creep, Loser,” The New Yorker, http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/donald-trump-narcissist-creep-loser; Amy Ellis Nutt, “Is Donald Trump a Textbook Narcissist?” The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/22/is-donald-trump-a-textbook-narcissist/?utm_term=.2e0da63603f0; Jeffrey Kluger, “The Truth About Donald Trump’s Narcissism,” TIME, http://time.com/3992363/trump-narcissism/.

  34. 34.

    Linda Kintz, Between Jesus and the Market: The Emotions That Matter in Right-Wing America (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997).

  35. 35.

    Anthony Cortese, Opposing Hate Speech (Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006), 1.

  36. 36.

    Chris Cillizza, “Think This Election Is as Bad as It Gets? Just Wait,” The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/10/27/hate-this-election-just-wait.

  37. 37.

    Dan Balz Robert Costa, Phillip Rucker, “Trump Wanted to Put Bill Clinton’s Accusers in His Family Box. Debate Officials Said No,” The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/10/10/trumps-debate-plan-to-seat-bill-clintons-accusers-in-family-box-was-thwarted/?utm_term=.ab6c89d3d570.

  38. 38.

    Ibid.

  39. 39.

    Infowars, “Expose Rapist Bill Clinton, Win $5 k,” InfoWars, http://www.infowars.com/expose-rapist-bill-clinton-win-5k/.

  40. 40.

    Laura Bult, “Clinton Lashes Out at Heckler Who Called Husband a Rapist,” New York Daily News, http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/clinton-lashes-heckler-called-bill-clinton-rapist-article-1.2855092.

  41. 41.

    Jeremy Diamond, “Donald Trump on Protestor: ‘I’d Like to Punch Him in the Face’,” CNN, http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/23/politics/donald-trump-nevada-rally-punch/.

  42. 42.

    Philip Bump, “Donald Trump Reverses Course on Paying Legal Fees for Man Who Attacked Protester: But Could He Do It?” The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/03/10/trump-once-said-he-would-pay-legal-fees-for-people-who-beat-up-protesters-now-that-its-happened-can-he/?utm_term=.94049ea8b74f.

  43. 43.

    Alex Seitz-Wald, “How Bernie Sanders Supporters Shut Down Donald Trump’s Rally in Chicago” NBC News, http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/how-bernie-sanders-supporters-shut-down-donald-trump-s-rally-n537191.

  44. 44.

    Daniella Diza and Drew Griffin. 18 October 2016. Dem operative ‘stepping back’ after video suggests group incited violence at Trump rallies” http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/18/politics/project-veritas-action-robert-creamer-donald-trump-rallies/.

  45. 45.

    Karen M. McCormack A. Javier Trevino, ed. Service Sociology and Academic Engagement in Social Problems (New York: Routledge, 2016), 289.

  46. 46.

    Joshua Berlinger, “Trump Threatened to Jail Clinton If Elected. These Countries Might Do the Same,” CNN, http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/10/politics/countries-that-jail-opposition-second-presidential-debate/; Benjamin Freed, “The Race between Clinton and Trump Looks Like a Third-World Election,” Washingtonian, https://www.washingtonian.com/2016/10/12/veteran-republican-pollster-says-race-clinton-trump-looks-like-third-world-election/; Charlie Savage, “Threat to Jail Clinton Smacks of ‘Tin-Pot Dictators,’ Experts Say,” The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/11/us/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-special-prosecutor.html?_r=0.

  47. 47.

    Alexander Meiklejohn, Free Speech and Its Relation to Self-Government (Lawbook Exchange Ltd., 2001), pp. 65–66. Originally published in 1948.

  48. 48.

    Eric Boehlert, “Study Confirms Network Evening Newscasts Have Abandoned Policy Coverage for 2016 Campaign,” Media Matters, http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/10/26/study-confirms-network-evening-newscasts-have-abandoned-policy-coverage-2016-campaign/214120.

  49. 49.

    Patterson, “Harvard Study: Policy Issues Nearly Absent in Presidential Campaign Coverage.” Also see Thomas E. Patterson, “News Coverage of the 2016 National Conventions: Negative News, Lacking Context,” Harvard Kennedy School Shorenstein Center of Media, Politics and Public Policy, https://shorensteincenter.org/news-coverage-2016-national-conventions/.

  50. 50.

    Liz Spayd, “One Thing Voters Agree On: Better Campaign Coverage Was Needed,” The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/public-editor/one-thing-voters-agree-on-better-campaign-coverage-was-needed.html.

  51. 51.

    Ibid.

  52. 52.

    Ursula K. Le Guin, The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination (Boston: Shambhala, 2004), 199.

  53. 53.

    Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927).

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Kirk, R., Martin, S.A. (2017). The Dark Power of Words: Stratagems of Hate in the 2016 Presidential Campaign. In: Denton Jr, R. (eds) The 2016 US Presidential Campaign. Political Campaigning and Communication. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52599-0_8

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