The Rhetorical Presidency Made Flesh: A Political Science Classic in the Age of Donald Trump

Critical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society 30 (3):347-368 (2018)
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Abstract

This article revisits Jeffrey Tulis’s The Rhetorical Presidency in the age of Trump, discussing the debates to which it originally responded, its core thesis and empirical evidence, as well as its impact on political science in the last three decades. The article’s second half turns to a recent critique of Tulis’s thesis by Ann C. Pluta, which manifests many of the misunderstandings that have persisted since The Rhetorical Presidency’s original publication. Habits of thought revealed in Pluta’s misunderstandings, I argue, are emblematic of the political culture that is amenable to the simplistic yet politically effective appeals characteristic of rhetorical presidents like Donald Trump. Elements of the broader political-science world that are on display in Pluta’s article are symptomatic of political pathologies sustained and aggravated by the culture of the polity that political scientists inhabit and purport to study—the culture of the rhetorical presidency.

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Citations of this work

The Timelessly Rhetorical Presidency: Reply to Zug.Anne C. Pluta - 2019 - Critical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society 31 (2):230-241.
Diagnosing the Blinding Effects of Trumpism: Rejoinder to Pluta.Charles U. Zug - 2019 - Critical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society 31 (2):242-254.

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References found in this work

Deliberation Between Institutions.Jeffrey K. Tulis - 2003 - In James S. Fishkin & Peter Laslett (eds.), Debating Deliberative Democracy. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 200–211.
The idea of an un‐rhetorical presidency.Bryan Garsten - 2007 - Critical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society 19 (2-3):325-334.
The puzzle of The Rhetorical Presidency.Thomas L. Pangle - 2007 - Critical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society 19 (2-3):403-413.

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