Using Democracy Against Itself: Demagogic Rhetoric as an Attack on Democratic Institutions

Demagoguery is a subject of much discussion around the world in light of recent international political affairs. But since demagoguery remains a contested term, the definition invites continued deliberation as rhetoricians grapple with its usefulness, persistence, and presence in world affairs, and as they consider what, if anything, to do about it. Building from Aristotle’s famously imprecise definition of demagoguery and from contemporary definitions that locate demagoguery in culture not in a specific speaker, this essay argues that demagogic rhetoric necessarily incorporates arguments, topoi, and evidence that attack and attempt to undermine the legitimacy of democratic institutions. Specifically, demagogic rhetoric hyperextends or supercharges direct democracy by amplifying “the will of the people” to undermine the constraining functions of democratic institutions

Rhetoric’s Demagogue | Demagoguery’s Rhetoric: An Introduction

Despite varying understandings of who or what a demagogue is or what a demagogue does, it is little surprise that demagoguery has long occupied rhetoricians, who are of course also interested in persuasion, argument, politics, public speech, affect, emotion, ethics, deliberative discourse, and essentially all the other realms of rhetorical action touched by the demagogue. Still, after more than two and a half millennia of deliberation on the matter, rhetoricians are still grappling with demagoguery—how to define it, how to identify who engages in it, how to explain its rhetorical character and effects, how to resist it, and how to reverse it, or if it’s even possible to do so. The essays in this issue advance that effort in a time when demagoguery is once again on the rise

Enlisting Composition: How First-Year Composition Helped Reorient Higher Education in the GI Bill Era

Composition historians have long argued that writing programs were radically transformed in the post-WWII era as a consequence of GI Bill enrollments. But, rising enrollments in this period were not just the cause of huge expansions in first-year writing programs. Rather, first-year composition helped to bring about huge expansions in higher education. Immediately preceding the introduction of the GI Bill, first-year composition became a de facto curricular requirement for institutions that wanted to be eligible for GI Bill funds. Not surprisingly, there was a wave of institutional transformations near the end of WWII as single-purpose institutions became multi-purpose state colleges to attract the newly established Federal largesse. First-year composition helped facilitate these changes around the country as institutions adopted or reformed first-year offerings to become GI Bill eligible.</p

Circuitry in Motion: Rhetoric(al) Moves in YouTube's Archive

Article on YouTube and how YouTube videos have become an influential source of argumentation, suggesting that they often serve a highly rhetorical function

Harvard, Again: Considering Articulation and Accreditation in Rhetoric and Composition's History

This article discusses considerations in articulation and accreditation in rhetoric and composition's history

Elizabeth Cady Stanton's 1854 "Address to the Legislature of New York" and the Paradox of Social Reform Rhetoric

Article on Elizabeth Cady Stanton's 1854 "Address to the Legislature of New York.

Institutionalizing Normal: Rethinking Composition's Precedence in Normal Schools

Article on rethinking composition's precedence in normal schools

Collecting Our Racist Uncles: An Exhortation to Seek Our Worst Selves in the History of Rhetoric

Formal remarks for my presentation as part of Session #628: “Revisionist Histories of Composition

Who Cares If Rhetoricians Landed on the Moon? Or, a Plea for Reviving the Politics of Historiography

This article discusses a plea for reviving the politics of historiography