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- Title
Speaking "Common Sense" About the Soviet Threat: Reagan's Rhetorical Stance.
- Authors
Ivie, Robert L.
- Abstract
This paper examines the symbolic resources employed by Ronald Reagan to characterize his anti-Soviet policies and increased military expenditures as common-sense adaptations to a real threat. The pattern of his rhetorical efforts is to establish a basic context of assumptions about Soviet conduct, using the metaphor of savagery and a set of decivilizing vehicles as primary resources. The resulting image is ‘literalized’ through an interplay of metaphor and evidence in which the trope calls attention to supportive information and discounts inconsistent data. A Presidential persona incarnates the people's voice to lend a further note of rationality to the heroic call for a strong America. Attempts by critics to combat Reagan's rhetoric are frustrated by the absence of a compelling substitute for his image of Soviet barbarism.
- Subjects
COMMON sense; REAGAN, Ronald, 1911-2004; POLITICAL science; JUDGMENT (Psychology); RHETORIC; PRACTICAL politics; THEORY of knowledge; AUTHORSHIP
- Publication
Western Journal of Speech Communication: WJSC, 1984, Vol 48, Issue 1, p39
- ISSN
0193-6700
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1080/10570318409374140