Welcome to the Political Communication in American Elections Blog, associated with Kennesaw State University's POLS 4490 and COM 4430 courses.
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Campaign Narratives From Within 16'
Why is it that narratives seem to be present in our everyday lives, no matter the age? Even as children we get used to the themes involved in most common fairy tales. The most common of themes can be identified simply as "good" always triumphing over "evil". We see this currently with sports, business, and is even present in the democratic process. Maybe more so than anywhere else, the idea of good vs. evil seems to be applied in the electoral process more and more. Where it is common to see this when others are speaking about those from "across the aisle", but we even see it within partisan groups. This is seen currently as the nominations of the major parties are coming soon, as candidates are still jockeying for their own position in the race. In the Republican party, this scenario can be seen when looking at the communication strategies employed by Rubio and Trump. Many have deemed Rubio to be the most "middle of the road" candidate in regards to where he is aligned on the political spectrum. Trump, very loud and potentially offensive, acts with no filter and continues to use his demonstrative personality to his favour. Rubio is good and Trump is evil, or can this be seen as merely subjective? The same scenario is seen through the race for the democratic nominee, between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Clinton, the professional politician, has been deemed as untrustworthy after her time as Secretary of State. Sanders, who many say possess socialistic tendencies, is the more open and "real" seeming of the two. Sanders seems keen on attacking Hillary's credibility and this has helped brand her as the "evil" choice in the eyes of many. He too has used his posture and stature to his benefit, aiming to insight trust (which is the exact opposite image he's portraying through his depiction of Clinton). The reason this type of narrative will remain present for years to come is undoubtedly due to the fact that it is up to us to determine who is good and who is evil. That decision is merely chosen by simply who we support and what values we value most.
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