Browsing by Author "Puronen, Kirsti"

The United States presidential elections are one of the most followed events in the world. The 2016 presidential elections will be remembered as one of the contentious elections ever. Donald Trump became the president against all odds. His campaign slogans “Make America Great Again” and “America First” promised to return the power to the people and redefine Americas’ role in the world. Trump’s campaign speeches were full of rhetoric that echoed the sentiments of the past presidents. His nativist speeches were full of anti-establishment appeals and racially heated language. The political polarization had divided the country, and amidst this Trump rose to presidency. His victory was rooted in the cultural and political changes that began decades earlier, and Trump’s presidency was the culmination of long-term developments. The thesis examines how Donald Trump used history politics in his general election campaign speeches. The primary sources of the thesis consist of general election speeches, from March to November in 2016. The thesis utilizes qualitative content analysis, in which primary sources are critically examined and compared, within the framework of history politics. The thesis relies on Jouni Tilli’s policy concept typology of history politics and Pilvi Torsti’s definition of history politics. The definitions of politicization and engagement in politics are a useful tool for analysing how Donald Trump blurred the line between myth, history and the past in his speeches. The theoretical framework of history politics refers to history being used in politics; it can manifest through political motives. Using history in political speeches is away to create a connection between the past and the present. The thesis also employs populism, which is used as analytical tool, when examining the political speeches. The thesis employs source-based analysis of primary sources, through research questions, within the framework of history politics. As well as looks how populism is expressed in the campaign speeches. The thesis also examines the rhetoric and themes of the Trump campaign, in order to understand the wider context and the outcomes of history politics. The analysation of the primary sources revealed that Trump exploited the conservative populist rhetoric that intertwined with history. His campaign message was appealing to the white working- and middle-class voters, who felt like they had been overlooked and left behind by the politicians and society. Trump capitalized on Richard Nixon’s “Silent Majority” and Ronald Reagan’s “Make America Great Again” narratives and transformed it to fit his populistic rhetoric. Trump presented himself as an outsider who provided simple solutions to big issues. He used history to justify the political rhetoric of the campaign. The most important result of the thesis was that history was politicized and used as the pivotal narrative in Trump’s campaign speeches. The history politics framework provided the thesis platform from which the campaign speeches could be analysed, and it created a context for the motives of using history in politics. Trump reused the political rhetoric of the past and intertwined it with populism.