Speaking “common sense”; about the Soviet threat: Reagan's rhetorical stance

Abstract

This paper examines the symbolic resources employed by Ronald Reagan to characterize his anti‐Soviet policies and increased military expenditures as common‐sense adaptations to a real threat. The pattern of his rhetorical efforts is to establish a basic context of assumptions about Soviet conduct, using the metaphor of savagery and a set of decivilizing vehicles as primary resources. The resulting image is “literalized”; through an interplay of metaphor and evidence in which the trope calls attention to supportive information and discounts inconsistent data. A Presidential persona incarnates the people's voice to lend a further note of rationality to the heroic call for a strong America. Attempts by critics to combat Reagan's rhetoric are frustrated by the absence of a compelling substitute for his image of Soviet barbarism.