The rhetoric of exorcism: George W. Bush and the return of political demonology

Sidestepping Environmental Controversy through a Rhetoric of Security: George W. Bush in Summerhaven, Arizona

“…Examination of other scholars' public address study allows us to see the interconnected nature of rhetorics and their inventive resources. Gunn's (2004) detailed look at Bush's use of ''demonic anthropomorphism to craft a righteous presidential rhetoric'' (p. 1) examines one of several rhetorics associated with the post-September 11 war on terror discourse. These rhetorics, I have mentioned, include crisis, war, apocalypse, and Manichaeism.…”

“…This void in invention and ethos, it is important to note, is ultimately reinstated by the ''war on terror'' or ''postSeptember 11'' worldview. As Murphy (2003) and Joshua Gunn (2004) have argued, President George W. Bush has not only invoked the crisis situation of a ''war on terror'' but also returned Presidential rhetoric to the realm of the Manichean (Murphy) or demonic (Gunn). Such is the case in President Bush's September 20, 2001, address to the joint Congress when he says that ''Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them.…”

Hunting the Devil: Democracy's Rhetorical Impulse to War

“…After awakening from the nightmare of 9/11, the president spoke to the nation in mythical overtones of an enemy that spewed hellfire and inhabited dungeons, declaring that “we must defeat the evildoers where they hide” (Bush 2001g). An image of sheer evil configured this presidential vision of a global war on terror, so much so that tracking the single term evildoers through the first weeks and months of Bush's war rhetoric leads directly to the perception of a gnawing internal tension which expresses itself in the quasi‐literalized metaphors and pseudo‐realistic narratives of an exorcism of foreign devils (Gunn 2004). This was “a different type of struggle to defeat an enemy that's sometimes hard to see, and sometimes hard to find,” he said, but “now is the time to root out evil so that our children and grandchildren can live with freedom as the beacon all around the world” (Bush 2001e).…”

“…Most recently, it was necessary to portray democratic America's external antagonist as brutally satanic (a role perfectly cast in the dictatorial figure of Saddam Hussein, who was reviled, deposed, and plucked unceremoniously out of a spider hole). America's own special virtue appeared on this dark rhetorical canvas as a mere silhouette sketched in gray relief to the enemy's black barbarity, as in the satanic image of the ominous “smoke demon” seen lurking about the stricken twin towers on that fateful morning of 9/11 (Gunn 2004, 2).…”

Demonizing ISIL and Defending Muslims: Australian Muslim Citizenship and Tony Abbott's “Death Cult” Rhetoric

“…Abbott's demonizing 2 of ISIL and construction of the threat of the ISIL death cult Unlike other leaders such as George W. Bush, whose official rhetoric -at least according to Gunn (2004) -included "demonology" as a distinguishing feature, Tony Abbott has tended to avoid rhetoric that paints a picture of the world in terms of a straightforward good/evil dichotomy. Indeed, his use of the term "evil" constitutes a useful point of reference in this respect.…”