Mating Call, Dog Whistle, Trigger: Asymmetric Alignments, Race, and the Use of Reactionary Religious Rhetoric in American Politics

Abstract

Asymmetric social alignments are transforming American partisan rhetoric, particularly how politicians leverage identity-based appeals. For example, asymmetric religious, racial, and ideological alignments within the Republican party now make reactionary religious rhetoric increasingly strategic. Focusing on that case, I propose a novel conceptual model to understand what such rhetoric aims to accomplish. Reactionary religious rhetoric advertises, appeals, and activates on a spectrum from overt to subconscious registers, which I explain using three metaphors: mating call, dog whistle, and trigger. Within a context of asymmetrical partisan “sorting,” Christian nationalist rhetoric overtly advertises partisanship (mating call). Rhetoric deploying encoded terms like “Christian” and “socialist” appeals to ethno-culture, connecting specific political opponents to abstract ethno-religious threats (dog whistle). Lastly, research on overlapping identities increasingly suggests rhetoric involving threats to “Christianity” may unconsciously activate White racial threat (trigger). I consider applications of this conceptual model to growing political appeals to nationalist and populist identities.

The Religious Right and Russia: Christian Nationalism and Americans' Views on Russia and Vladimir Putin Before and After the Ukranian Invasion

“…5 To be sure, research document that much of Christian nationalism's influence on Americans' political attitudes is racially specific, particularly when outcome measures involve racially salient issues (e.g., American racial history, racial inequality, injustice, voting, etc.) (Gorski and Perry 2022;Perry 2023;Perry et al 2022;Perry and Whitehead 2019). However, previous research did not lead us toward specific hypotheses on how Americans' attitudes would differ across race regarding Russia or Putin.…”

“…4 Though it is debated whether Putin is an "ethno-nationalist" (Laruelle 2016) according to specific terminology, we argue that leaders on the Christian far-right clearly perceive him that way and thus share a kinship. case, whiteness (Butler 2021;Perry 2023). Whiteness is thus the subtext of Christian Right discourse on Russia's protection of borders or preservation of culture.…”

The Religious Right and Russia: Christian Nationalism and Americans’ Views on Russia and Vladimir Putin Before and After the Ukrainian Invasion

“…Data from multiple surveys before and during Trump's presidency show that favorability toward Russia and Vladimir Putin increased considerably among Republicans while plummeting among Democrats (Huang and Cha 2020;Pew Research Center 2019;Reinhart 2018;Swift 2017). 3 These more recent shifts could suggest that Americans' changing views about Russia and Putin are driven largely by partisan allegiance which has become tightly correlated with ideological identity in the past few decades (Perry 2023). Early on in his candidacy and throughout his Presidency, Trump expressed admiration for Putin's leadership and encouraged Americans to see Russia as America's ally (Riccardi-Swartz 2022b).…”

“…But the other part is that while the former USSR was demonized because of "godless communism," Putin's Russia now represents much of what Trump advertised and valued in his own leadership: law and order, challenging mainstream media, white ethno-nationalism, and traditional (in Putin's version Orthodox) "Christian" values that did not depend on personal piety, but on nativism and traditionalist moral stances (Stoeckl and Uzlaner 2020;Riccardi-Swartz 2022a, 2022b. 4 In this sense, the "Christianity" of both Russian and American Christian nationalism cannot be understood apart from their connection to ethnicity, in the latter case, whiteness (Butler 2021;Perry 2023). Whiteness is thus the subtext of Christian Right discourse on Russia's protection of borders or preservation of culture.…”

“…These more recent shifts could suggest that Americans’ changing views about Russia and Putin are driven largely by partisan allegiance which has become tightly correlated with ideological identity in the past few decades (Perry 2023). Early on in his candidacy and throughout his Presidency, Trump expressed admiration for Putin's leadership and encouraged Americans to see Russia as America's ally (Riccardi‐Swartz 2022b).…”