Beyond slogans

In August, Joe Biden addressed the Democratic National Convention as he accepted his party's nomination to run for president. During his speech, Biden framed the election on November 3 as a battle for the "soul of America." The former vice president depicted the urgency of the moment as he saw it: that the American people have a critical choice to make in an election that carries great social, political, and economic implications.

However, Biden's use of the word "soul" is not new to American political discourse, according to historian Jon Meacham. Behind Biden's message is an appeal to euro-centric principles or certain traditions attempting to underscore the reality that the U.S. political and economic system is broken – dividing people culturally and socially along the way. Biden claims our beliefs, values, and political norms have been dismantled, corrupted and co-opted by those who either do not understand them, take them for granted, or perhaps couldn't care less about them for the sake of their interests.

The blame is placed on President Donald Trump and his associates at home and abroad for good reasons. Trump and his ilk have distorted or corrupted liberal traditions, republican citizenship, and democratic institutions and, at the same time, they have disregarded individual rights, civic fairness, and human decency.

Trump has wrought a new divisive politics, from his self-serving slogans ("Make America Great Again" to "Keep America Great") and rhetorical tweet storms to his elite-centered social policies. Together, this has ushered into the mainstream of American life radical right-wing ideas, extra racial and immigrant animus, and anti-media hostility. These divisions have reached unimaginable heights, with dire consequences reflected further in Trump's and the Republicans' lack of leadership around the coronavirus pandemic, racial and social justice, the homelessness crisis, and rising unemployment, among others.

Both Trump and Biden are operating within a symbolic/performative political frame that supposedly addresses the real needs of the American working people. Yet the competing slogans and the performative politics we have witnessed over the past few months have done more to perpetuate the bitter partisanship keeping us "trampling on each other for our scraps of bread," as E.L. Doctorow pointed out in 1992. So, what we instead need is a transformative (redistributive) politics that directly answers the complex quotidian concerns of the majority working-class people across race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and civic or legal status now and after the election.

American author William Safire once wrote that slogans can serve as a "rallying cry" or a "catchphrase" that often "crystallizes an idea" or "defines an issue." Most importantly, according to Safire, some slogans even "thrill, exhort, and inspire" people into action. Sloganism has become an American neoliberal ideological tool and strategic marketing imperative that guides both the Republican and Democratic parties, especially during presidential elections.

Excepted: ‘Working-Class America Needs Real Change, Not Slogans’

Commondreams.org