LE3 .A278 2022

2022

Carlson, Jesse
Rondinelli, Elisabeth

Acadia University

Master of Arts

Masters

Sociology

Sociology

This paper seeks to gain deeper insight on Donald Trump’s political movement by analyzing five separate Trump rallies from 2019-2021, through the lens of a qualitative content analysis. I ask the questions ‘How does Trump’s discourse work’ and ‘Does Trump’s discourse share similarities with fascism as the literature describes it?’ Cultural sociology, theories of fascism, and theories of religion are brought together to develop a framework for analyzing Trump’s movement. I determine that, through a process of binary coding and ritual, Trump’s discourse is affected and shaped by the way he uses his rallies to sacralize himself and his movement, pollute opposition, designating them as profane/impure, and redraw the boundary between sacred and profane/impure in a way that casts out those who oppose him. Additionally, I determine Trump’s discourse does share similarities with fascism as the literature describes it, and that his movement can be conceptualized as an attempt to shift the American civil religion into an American political religion.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:3874