[KB] Trump question

[Camille K. Lewis]

All I have are previous examples from the last 100 years.

When Athens, Georgia's own Andrew Cobb Erwin spoke out against the Klan in
1924, he was the beginning of the trend to distrust the cloaked violence of
the KKK.

When D.C. Stephenson, the Grand Wizard of the KKK in Indiana, was tried and
convicted for *chewing* a woman to death--a woman he had kidnapped and
moved across state lines--the Klan membership in Indiana dropped sharply.

When Superman fought the KKK on his radio show and little children started
playing "G-men vs. Klansmen" instead of cops-and-robbers, the Klansmen's
egos were bruised and they started to lose interest in the secret group.

These are just three examples I can remember off the top of my head, and
the last one is likely more urban legend than fact. I do somewhat collect
these examples for my own scholarly project in dismantling another white
supremacist's hold on a particular "tribe" in the American South. It feels
like a field of kudzu and saw briar for me. We all have to pull up our
share and eventually the field will be cleared.

Just some Monday morning thoughts as I avoid grading. . . .

C


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Camille K. Lewis, Ph.D.
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On Mon, Oct 22, 2018 at 1:30 PM Clarke Rountree <rountrj at uah.edu> wrote:

> Dear Burkelers:
>
> I never cease to be amazed at the power of tribalism in American politics.
> Trump now stands at 45% approval rating--higher than Obama at the same
> point.
>
> Since tribalism is at its most basic a form of identification, I want to
> ask a serious question: What could cause such a tribal leader to fall from
> grace? For a strong identification to weaken? Trump said he could shoot
> someone on 5th Avenue in broad daylight and not lose his base. I'm starting
> to believe that.
>
> I assume that since Trump is associated WITH and AGAINST a range of things
> defining the lines of identification for his base, some kind of separation
> between him and his base's beliefs would be a step in the direction of
> alienation. However, since a WEB of identifications constitute the hold he
> has on people, a simple disconnection here or there won't do. For example,
> he was widely reported to have said after the tax cut to his rich friends,
> "I just made you a lot of money." One would think that swampy, non-working
> class sort of thing might get him in hot water. (I have trouble believing
> that he has so brainwashed his base that they really think that all
> mainstream media news is fake, even if they're wary.)
>
> So, a revelation that he had funded several abortions for former lovers?
> (Not that this is the case, I'm just hypothetically testing the waters.) A
> videotape of his dressing down working class folks as he stiffs them for
> the work they provided? Revelations of a gay sex affair? (This last
> probably would never be believed because it flies in the face of the
> hypermasculine image he pushes.) He has so many skeletons in his large
> closet that there are any number of damning things that could come out.
>
> I also wonder about weariness and its rhetorical implications. I'm
> exhausted from the daily drama and I assume even his followers are. I would
> think that they might miss the no-drama-Obama days when you could go
> several weeks without hearing anything about the president or the White
> House. We rhetoricians tend to focus on the notable more than the mundane
> in rhetoric. The drip-drip-drip kind of rhetoric (from repeating: "MSM is
> Fake News!" to a "Here we go again" kind of exhaustion) is harder to
> account for. Also, we don't seem to have a good handle on what Perelman
> once called "The Interaction of Arguments," such as when we have one
> revelation about a Trump lie on top of another, so that the first is
> forgotten as we grapple with the new one.
>
> Burke shows us clearly how such demagogues establish themselves; does he
> say as much about how they maintain themselves? (Probably his discussions
> of the how systems like capitalism carry on are applicable.)
>
> This listserv has some of the sharpest rhetorical minds I know--surely
> there is some rhetorical daylight somewhere to offer encouragement!
>
> Count me frustrated in the reddest of states!
>
> Clarke
>
> --
> Dr. Clarke Rountree
> Professor of Communication Arts
> Associate Dean for Recruitment and Outreach for the College of Arts,
> Humanities, and Social Sciences
> 212D CTC
> University of Alabama in Huntsville
> Huntsville, AL  35899
> 256-824-6646
> clarke.rountree at uah.edu
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> http://kbjournal.org/mailman/listinfo/kb_kbjournal.org
>
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