The Language of Political War: How Political Figures of the Make America Great Again Movement Use the War Metaphor in Political Discourse

This thesis examines the role of war metaphors in the political discourse of extreme right political figures: Donald Trump and Vivek Ramaswamy and how they shape the extreme right ideology of the Make America Great Again Movement (MAGA). War metaphors are rhetorical devices used in everyday language to communicate abstract ideas using more broadly understood domains like war and promote societal salience. The analysis of militarism in society and politics is foundational to the Critical Military Studies discipline, however, there has been little engagement with the study of war metaphors and their influence on polarisation in democracies, which this thesis aims to address. The thesis performs a Critical Metaphor Analysis, which integrates the disciplines of Conceptual Metaphor Theory with Critical Discourse Analysis. The analysis of discourse considers a 3-month collection of tweets since 1 January 2024 to examine war metaphors in informal political discourse in the months nearing...Show moreThis thesis examines the role of war metaphors in the political discourse of extreme right political figures: Donald Trump and Vivek Ramaswamy and how they shape the extreme right ideology of the Make America Great Again Movement (MAGA). War metaphors are rhetorical devices used in everyday language to communicate abstract ideas using more broadly understood domains like war and promote societal salience. The analysis of militarism in society and politics is foundational to the Critical Military Studies discipline, however, there has been little engagement with the study of war metaphors and their influence on polarisation in democracies, which this thesis aims to address. The thesis performs a Critical Metaphor Analysis, which integrates the disciplines of Conceptual Metaphor Theory with Critical Discourse Analysis. The analysis of discourse considers a 3-month collection of tweets since 1 January 2024 to examine war metaphors in informal political discourse in the months nearing United States presidential elections. The analysis finds the employment of war metaphors to primarily manifest in three ways: language of attack, language of defence, and adoption of militarism and patriotism. These forms of war metaphors depart from the traditional use of war metaphors to motivate the acceptance of violence and promote a climate of affective polarisation. The prominence of war metaphors in MAGA discourse is observed to promote the acceptance of authoritarian politics and mobilise violent action, which all serves to erode democracy in an established liberal democracy like the United States.Show less

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The Language of Political War: How Political Figures of the Make America Great Again Movement Use the War Metaphor in Political Discourse