Trump Speak: P. T. Barnum with a Megaphone

 

In today’s charged national atmosphere, we are used to hearing language that is exaggerated and strident from President Trump. The question in my mind is: Why are Trump’s speeches appealing to many people? What is there about the language he uses that brings people in?

Linguist George Lakoff explains that Trump uses salesmen’s tricks to appeal to audiences. These tricks shape our unconscious, whether or not we believe what he is saying, according to Lakoff (https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/11/14238274/trumps-speaking-style-press-conference-linguists-explain). What are these salesmen’s tricks?

Here is a list of a few of these tricks: 1. Trump implies that others share the same idea, as when he says that “many people are saying” or “believe me”. People are more likely to believe something if they feel many other people share this same opinion. 2. He assigns stereotypes to people or groups of people and gains traction by repeating the slur. For example, he called Hilary Clinton “crooked;” he called terrorists “radical Muslims”. 3. He refers to his supporters as “folks” to identify with them. 4. He uses many pauses, ramblings, and unfinished sentences. “He knows his audience can finish his sentences for him," Lakoff says (https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/11/14238274/trumps-speaking-style-press-conference-linguists-explain).

Trump/Library of Congress

What would seem to be off-putting in a speaker’s style like a lot of pauses and false starts sometimes works to his advantage as audiences can predict what he was going to say, which may bring them closer to him. Audiences fill in the blanks with sentiments that resonate with them, e.g., fear of joblessness, fear of foreign terrorist groups, and fear of other races gaining power over whites. He taps into their insecurity, allowing his audience to express their fear through anger, which gives them a false sense of empowerment.

That is a secret to Trump’s success as a speaker—his uncanny ability to use words that resonate with a large section of the population, the increasing numbers of people who are out of work, cannot get adequate health insurance, and struggle to take care of their families. Trump can fire them up by appealing to these fears and insecurities, and offering false hope that he can solve all their problems, much like did P.T. Barnum, when he got crowds to believe his wild claims about his circus, enticing them to buy tickets to see the show at the big top.

Trump and Barnum have more in common than both being "dream weavers." Barnun, who was a 

 Barnum & Bailey

 slave owner, had as his first freaky attraction, an enslaved woman he promoted as being George Washington’s 161-year-old nurse (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-pt-barnum-greatest-humbug-them-all-180967634/). They are dream weavers, but just as Barnum displayed and exploited unfortunate souls like bearded ladies, Siamese twins, and .little people, Trump as circus barker, is leading us toward a scary apocalypse where only rich, white supremacists can buy a ticket to the big show. It is only when crowds cease to be taken in by empty promises, hype, and dreams of a lily-white society that we can begin to shake loose of the mesmerism of Trump’s rhetoric. Do we want to create a dystopian society populated by white, cookie cutter robots, marching all, line by line, down into a fiery oblivion of our own making?

Is this the picture of the new, ideal society, based on equality and love that we all want in our heart of hearts? If not, we have been called to action to turn back the tide of hate and greed. The time is now. The need is urgent. There is nothing holding us back but our complacency and our fears. All we have to lose are our chains.