Pragmatism in American Political Discourse and its Social Perception

Abstract

Initially, political discourse is supposedly used to address the public about current situations and issues and the solutions for these issues. However, it has become a tool to persuade and convince the public using different strategies. This study aims at exploring pragmatism usage in American political discourse and its social perception, with a special focus on President Donald Trump. To achieve that, the history of pragmatism and its concepts must be discussed. Donald Trump is currently considered the most controversial president not only in the United States but also globally. His discourses, often described as unconventional and untraditional, are widely studied by academics. However, very little research has been conducted concerning Trump’s use of pragmatism and its impact on the American society. This study uses a deductive latent thematic analysis to explore Donald Trump’s pragmatism usage in his discourses. Both written and spoken discourses were selected randomly and put to analysis. Thus, this research follows a qualitative approach for Trump’s discourse analysis. As for the social perception side, data from different media outlets highlighting the social perception of the selected discourses are extracted and interpreted. The findings suggest that Donald Trump’s discourses often include appeals to pragmatism. Through the analysis, patterns of using concepts of pragmatism by Donald Trump are identified. In terms of the social perception of Trump’s discourses, segments of the American society who are Republicans approve of Trump’s discourses, and those who identify as Democrats strongly disapprove. The study concludesthat Trump indeed appealsto pragmatism in hisspeeches, which seems to cause both political and social polarization in the United States. However, the objectivity of the social perception is still unclear and somewhat inaccurate. Therefore, more research with more participants involved can be conducted to unveil the true reasons of approving or disapproving discourses