Cornell experts analyze rhetoric used by both campaigns in final stretch

Following former President Trump’s campaign rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, experts are weighing in on the impact and implications of the rhetoric used by both the former president and other guest speakers and whether the response from Democrats so far has been effective.

Kate Manne, associate professor of philosophy affiliated with the Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program in the College of Arts & Sciences, says voters need to be vigilant about the tropes and stereotypes portrayed in this type of rhetoric.


Manne says: “Sunday night, speakers at Trump’s rally in Madison Square Garden called Vice President Kamala Harris ‘the devil,’ a prostitute, and an anti-Christ. Such metaphors have deeply misogynistic and racist meanings, conjuring up the ‘Jezebel’ trope that paints Black women as overly sexual, promiscuous, and demonic when they seek power and authority.

“We need to be vigilant about these tropes, which are gaining ground with right-wing Christian extremists, as well as the common trope that Harris is ‘fake,’ inauthentic, robotic, and so on, which has been used to tarnish female political leaders for decades.”

Mabel Berezin, a professor of sociology (A&S), teaches a course in fascism, nationalism and populism at Cornell University. She says that countering Trump by calling him a fascist is a dead-end and that Democrats should focus on consequences.

Berezin says: “Pundits have spent the weekend talking of Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally as a repeat of the 1939 Nazi rally in the Garden. Historical comparisons are important, but comparisons—no matter how compelling—are not a good electoral strategy and that is what the current moment demands.

“JD Vance offered the one strategic line at the rally when in response to a scurrilous chant against Tim Walz. Vance said, ‘you can say that, but I cannot.’ Kamala Harris and her team should take a line from Vance on this one. Let others call Trump a fascist. Democrats should not close on fascism. They should close on the consequences of a Trump presidency. Closing on get out the vote efforts is where victory lies. Fascism is, as always, a dead-end.”

For interviews contact Damien Sharp: cell 540.222.8208; drs395@cornell.edu.