Rhetorical Alignment between Political Campaign Discourse and Democratic Deliberation

Abstract

The role of rhetoric in deliberation has received considerable attention in deliberative and rhetorical theory, but it is still unclear how non-deliberative rhetoric can work symbiotically with deliberative rhetoric within deliberative events. This essay builds on previous theorizing to better understand the potential for overlap between these two kinds of rhetoric. We introduce the concept of rhetorical alignment as a practice that interfaces non-deliberative rhetoric with deliberative rhetoric. Rhetorical alignment is defined as an inventional opening within a deliberative system that occurs when the same rhetoric serves internal and external ends that have potential for symbiosis and which otherwise seem to be in tension. Working from the specific context of a US political campaign, we rhetorically analyze how local political candidates aligned their rhetoric to deliberative norms in a ‘Candidate Meet & Greet’ deliberation. The alignment, in the US campaign context, highlights how candidates’ discourse simultaneously appealed to their character as deliberative leaders and reinforced deliberative norms. Rhetorical alignment is a conceptual resource to bridge deliberation with other forms of political communication. Practical implications for promoting power sharing and deliberative framing are also considered.