On Tuesday, voters will finally make their voices heard after one of the most turbulent presidential elections in American history.
In a campaign cycle that has included felony convictions and assassination attempts on one side of the ticket, and an unprecedented candidate switch on the other, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have taken vastly different approaches.
Robert Rowland is a professor of political communication and rhetoric at the University of Kansas. He told KCUR's Up To Date that Trump's speeches have become longer, less coherent and "more extreme" than previous election cycles.
"In 2016, he called Democrats the radical left — and he still uses that language — but now he will also call them communist, un-American, sometimes both communist and fascist," Rowland said. "Although, it is hard to understand how that could be. And, y'know, the statement just yesterday that he would not be that unhappy — now, he always says he is joking — but that he would not be that unhappy if media were killed at one of his rallies."
"And then, personal grievances: He claims the 2020 election was stolen, that the people who attacked the capital on January 6, something we all saw, he talks about them as political prisoners," Rowland continued. "These are woven together, so, negative emotions like anger, fear and grievance are all woven together."
On the other side of the aisle, Rowland says that Harris has spent much of her campaign focused on attacking Trump. But, she has done so differently than President Joe Biden.
"While Biden focused almost totally on Trump as a threat to democracy, Harris has also argued that Trump doesn't care about ordinary people, that he spent his whole life taking advantage of ordinary people. So, I think that has been kind of a major shift," Rowland said.
He also says that Harris' rhetoric has been somewhat similar to President Barack Obama's, back when he first ran in 2008, in that she laid out a progressive message that pushes the idea that she will help everyday Americans.
"She's talking about policies that lift up ordinary people, she's emphasizing similarities among us rather than differences," Rowland said. "Going back to Obama's first major speech where he talked about, 'We're not red states and blue states, but the United States of America,' and 'not Black America or white America but the United States of America.' She has hit similar themes in her campaign emphasizing commonality and continuing to appeal to particular groups based on issues."
- Robert Rowland, professor of political communication and rhetoric at the University of Kansas
