Farid Ghamsari
Dr. Stephanie Brown
English 306
9/15/2016
Rhetoric of Protest: “Make America Great Again”
The slogan: “Make
America Great Again” has swept the United States as one of the most impassioned
and powerful campaign slogans in recent American history. The current
Presidential Nominee for the Republican Party, Donald Trump, has been using
this slogan to amass and utilize feelings of distrust and discontent towards
the US Democratic Party and its leadership, which has held the seat of the presidency
for the past eight years. During this time, the United States has seen a
significant amount of turmoil including, but not limited to, the Great
Recession, the rise of ISIS, and an increasing number of mass shootings and
terrorist attacks inside US borders. With so many devastating tragedies, it is
easy to see how distress and debate over the effectiveness of the United States
leadership could be growing amongst US citizens. Through many of these events,
the ideals and desires of conservatives were often largely ignored by the White
House. Not only did this create resentment amongst conservatives who felt that
they were not being adequately represented, but the failures that resulted from
those decisions have left many conservatives with severe frustration towards
the Democratic Party and its policies. Those who support the conservative
ideals of the Republican Party and have felt that their desires have been
largely disregarded by the liberals within the Democratic Party have grown to
be a large and significant part of the American population. Those people along
with their resentment builds the platform for the efficacy of Donald Trump’s
Slogan “Make America Great again”.
The slogan’s
intended audience is all United States voters, but also principally these individuals
who have felt unrepresented by the Democratic Party and who feel that the
current leadership has failed in protecting and strengthening the country. It
embodies the collective identities of those who feel animosity towards this
leadership and believe that the state of the US has been in decline over the
past two presidential terms. Immediately following the 2012 presidential
election of Barack Obama, Donald Trump trademarked the slogan and began
preparing for his 2016 presidential campaign (Martosko). Its purpose is to have voters support Donald
Trump in the election by proclaiming that he will in fact “Make America Great
Again”. More specifically, it uses a significant amount of pathos meant to draw
upon the existing strong negative emotions towards the current liberal leadership,
elicit feelings of fond nostalgia for the past, and lead its audience to
believe that the US is no longer what it used to be due to the leadership. It
simultaneously employs ethos to invite its audience to believe that Donald
Trump is both capable and necessary to put the US on the path to greatness once
again.
One reason “Make
America Great Again” is such a powerful slogan is because of the emotions it
elicits from its audience. It makes an appeal to pathos by having its audience
believe that America has declined from its previous state which is being held
in a state of nostalgic glory by the slogan. This is, for obvious reasons, a
painful notion for many Americans to accept. The slogan feeds upon and fans the
flames of insecurity and distrust for liberal leadership. Many blame the recent
terrorist attacks in the United States on the liberal policies of allowing
Syrian refugees to enter. While there is no evidence to support this claim,
President Barack Obama and the rest of the Democratic Party are under scrutiny
and attack from the Republican party for this decision (Saletan). These attacks
alone have broken American’s sense of security in the US. The decision to
continue allowing refugees to enter even after the attacks has led many
Americans to question the Democratic Party’s priorities: Is it the security of
American citizens or the security of strangers overseas? Another crisis which
has ailed Barack Obama’s presidency is the economy after the Great Recession.
At its height, millions of American’s lost their jobs and their homes. US
citizens who voted for Obama believed he had a plan for the economy to make a
strong recovery. While many liberal proponents will point out that the economy
has been in steady rise during President Obama’s two terms, it has been one of the
slowest and weakest economic recoveries in American history(Tracinski). Millions
of Americans are still unemployed and people who used to be managers or
teachers now work as cashiers and custodians. American citizens have lost their
faith in both the Democratic Party’s ideals and their efficacy as leaders.
This distrust has
only been exacerbated in the current presidential election. The Democratic
Party’s current nominee running against Donald Trump, Hilary Clinton, has been recently
investigated by the FBI over improper use of a private email server during her
time as Secretary of State four years ago. During the investigation, there was
serious debate as to whether her use had been criminal. The results of the
investigation were that her use had not been intentionally criminal but had
been “extremely careless” (Landler). This was only one of the many scandals
surrounding Clinton that have made the American people feel that she is
untrustworthy and unfit to be president, hammering her with nicknames such as
the now ubiquitous “Crooked Hillary”. The slogan effectively characterizes the
insecurity and distrust people feel towards the Clinton and the rest of the
liberal leadership due to their many failures and pitfalls over the past
several years. “Make American Great Again” employs pathos by tapping into these
emotions. Intensifying them in order to have voters turn against the Democratic
Party, who’s motives and efficacy can no longer be trusted, to a man whose can
be, Donald Trump.
It is clear how the slogan, “Make America
Great Again” can hit home for so many Americans. It brings forth all of the
underlying resentment citizens have towards the way the country has been run by
the Democratic Party. But the slogan’s strength is also drawn from its hints to
a time before the crises plaguing the American people, when America was truly “Great”.
It elicits fond emotions of nostalgia for a past without the fear of terrorism
and economic insecurity. The slogan paints a picture of a once great America,
without these constant threats, in which people felt safe and happy. That
nostalgia may be argued to be inaccurately placed, but the slogan still
provokes these feelings of a fond and attractive past. A past which the Trump Campaign
promises to return its voters to, once again using powerful emotions to draw
its constituency from those who feel they have been misled to a bleaker and
sadder America than it once was.
While pathos is
the major rhetorical strategy at play here, the slogan also uses ethos to sway
its audience towards voting for Donald Trump. The slogan was originally used and
popularized by Ronald Raegan in his 1979 Presidential Campaign (Martosko).
Ronald Raegan is commonly held as one of the greatest political leaders in
recent American history. Many current conservative ideals are call backs to
Raegan’s presidential policies such as “Raeganism” and "Raeganomics”. By
using the same slogan as Ronald Raegan, Donald Trump gains the authority of his
predecessor in order to sway his crowd. Ronald Raegan was also a president who
dealt with a damaged economy, yet unlike the liberals of today, he was able to
bring an exceptionally strong and swift recovery (Heubusch). If Ronald Raegan
were around today, many conservatives would undoubtedly trust him to fix the
economy once more, and by using his slogan, Donald Trump can garner the same
sort of trust and confidence from his voters.
Donald Trump’s
campaign slogan “Make America Great Again”, is influential for a number of
reasons. The slogan works by aiming the dissatisfaction of many Americans with
the state of the nation towards the Democratic party and its leadership. It
employs pathos to nurture American insecurity towards the several past years of
leadership and has them believe that they have been misled to an America which
is no longer great. By doing so, the slogan paints Donald Trump’s competitor as
an untrustworthy candidate who is unfit to be president. Along with these stark
emotions of distrust, it prompts a strong nostalgia for a past in which
American’s fears of today didn’t exist. These emotions of longing for the past
also work to sway voters in favor of Donald Trump who promises change from the
Democratic Party and their ideals which have led up to the current issues faced
in the US. The slogan also employs ethos by drawing a line between Donald Trump
and one of the most trusted conservative leaders in recent history, Ronald
Raegan. By doing so, Trump attracts the same authority that Raegan’s name
commands. The rhetoric has been incredibly effective in achieving its purpose.
Its ubiquitous presence in the US media is a credit to how significant the
slogan has become. It has made appearances on hats and other articles of
clothing and has become synonymous with Donald Trump support. It has been
decisively effective in making voters believe that America is no longer great,
and that Donald Trump is the only candidate who can make it great once more.
Works Cited:
Martosko, David. "EXCLUSIVE: Trump Trademarked Slogan 'Make
America Great Again' Just DAYS after the 2012 Election and Says Ted Cruz Has
Agreed Not to Use It Again after Scott Walker Booms It TWICE in
Speech." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 2015. Web. 02 Sept. 2016.
Saletan, William. “The New Republican Standard: Guilty Until
Proven Christian.” Slate Magazine. N.p., 2015. Web. 15 Sept. 2016
Tracinski. “10 Ways Obama Has Failed as President.” The Federalist. N.p., 2014. Web. 15
Sept. 2016.
Landler, Mark. “Hillary Clinton’s 15,000 New Emails to Get
Timetable for Release.” The New York
Times. The New York Times, 2016. Web. 15 Sept. 2016
Heubusch, John.
“Ronald Raegan’s Enduring Economic Legacy.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 15 Sept. 2016
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