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The Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School REMEMBERING JIMMY CARTER THE RHETORICAL EVOCATIONS OF PRESIDENTIAL MEMORIES A Thesis in Communication Arts and Sciences by Brandon M. Johnson 2020 Brandon M. Johnson Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts August 2020 The thesis of Brandon M. Johnson was reviewed and approved by the following: Mary E. Stuckey Professor, Communication Arts and Sciences Thesis Advisor Stephen H. Browne Liberal Arts Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences Michael J. Steudeman Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Director of CAS100A Denise H. Solomon Head and Liberal Arts Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences iii ABSTRACT This thesis is an analysis of the public memory of Jimmy Carter and the way the historical resources of his presidency (including his perceived moral character) are interpreted and evoked as a shorthand for presidential failure by associating him with a rhetoric of weakness. Broadly, I consider the nature of presidential memory, asking how a presidency passes from history to memory. I suggest that presidential histories serve as inventional resources in the present, with rhetors evoking interpretations of the past as rhetorical appeals. These appeals are acts of memory, and analyzing how they function discursively and are deployed strategically draws out how presidential memory works and what implications it has to presidential rhetoric. The different strategies used in remembering the presidency of Jimmy Carter are useful texts for rhetorically critiquing this process because Carter is often deployed as a rhetorical shorthand, providing a representative example of interpreting presidential pasts. I begin by considering the evolving scholarship and historiography on Carter and conceptualizing how presidential pasts can be interpreted in the present through acts of remembering. My next three chapters consider how Carter is evoked in the present. Chapter two is about the constitution of his moral character during his political career in Georgia and in the White House, which established an important inventional resource for later strategies of remembering him. I explain how Carter developed his image of moral character by relying on a split between personal morality (including his own faith) and public policy, which allowed him to navigate contexts of race and segregation in the South. I suggest that his rhetoric was broad enough to appeal to both white voters who had supported George Wallace and to African Americans who responded to his perceived morality, creating a tenuous electoral coalition. Chapter three is a close consideration of how presidential memory functions, analyzing what discursive strategies and textual forms are used to evoke presidential pasts. I draw from The New iv Rhetoric to argue that in Carter’s case, evocations of his memory rely on associating him with weakness and then using his presidency as the benchmark of failure, which other candidates (usually Republican) try to disassociate themselves from while comparing their rivals to Carter. I reveal that this association relies on a masculine conceptualization of “strength” that works to limit diplomatic solutions and further genders the presidency as an institution. My fourth chapter centers on the Iran Hostage Crisis, which I position as the “definitive” memory of the Carter presidency because it is often presented as his final failure and because it is emblematic of the strategies of memory I describe throughout my thesis. I show how historians and politicians alike interpret the crisis as both a personal struggle between Carter and the Iranians and the result of personal weakness on the part of Carter (extending chapter three’s analysis). I include an analysis of the film Argo, which I argue is an attempt at cinematic redemption, to demonstrate the national shame evoked by this way of remembering. I conclude by looking at how Carter’s character and many of the traits used to malign his presidential memory have made him a successful ex- president and ask what that means for the presidency as an institution and for future scholarship. What these evocations of Carter lose are the nuances of history or the fact that, actually, Jimmy Carter did get the hostages released. All remembering simplifies, but in the case of Carter, it also works to forget aspects of his presidency worth remembering (such as his morality) and to mask undercurrents of race and gendered rhetoric operating in the presidential rhetorics of memory. Consequently, the implications of my analysis are twofold. Historically, I intervene in existing interpretations of President Carter to add a new rhetorical dimension to the ways we consider his presidency. Rhetorically, I outline the strategies used in remembering past presidents, laying the groundwork for future analysis and a continued consideration of how the ways we remember the history of the presidency shape how we conceptualize its future. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................... vi Chapter 1 Introduction: Interpreting Presidential Pasts .......................................................... 1 Carter in Context: The Rhetorical Resources of History ................................................. 6 Studying Presidential Memories: The Rhetorical Evocations of Memory ....................... 11 From History to Memory: Outline of Analysis ................................................................ 16 References ........................................................................................................................ 20 Chapter 2 Remembering Carter’s Character: Intersections of Race, Religion, and Policy in Carter’s Moral Rhetoric ............................................................................................... 29 Constituting Character: Personal Morality and Public Policy ......................................... 33 Race, Religion, and Politics: How Carter’s Moral Rhetoric Navigated Race and Segregation in the South .......................................................................................... 39 The Man from Plains: Constituting Character in Georgia Politics........................... 39 Race and Religion in Carter’s Presidential Rhetoric ................................................ 45 Conclusion: The Rise of the Religious Right and The Redemption of Jimmy Carter ..... 51 References ........................................................................................................................ 56 Chapter 3 Evoking Presidential Memories: The Carter Presidency as Shorthand for Presidential Weakness ...................................................................................................... 66 Rhetorics of Presidential Memories ................................................................................. 69 Interpreting the Carter Presidency: From History to Memory ......................................... 73 Too Small for the Office: Initial Framings of the Carter Years ............................... 74 The Shift to Memory: Remembering Carter During the Reagan Administration .... 79 Available Means of Presidential Memory: Carter as Shorthand .............................. 82 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 86 References ........................................................................................................................ 90 Chapter 4 Carter’s Signature Failure: Remembering the Iran Hostage Crisis ........................ 97 Four Hundred and Forty-Four Days: Carter’s Crisis ....................................................... 100 The Defeat of Jimmy Carter: Remembering the Iran Hostage Crisis as Personal Weakness .................................................................................................................. 102 The Iran Hostage Crisis as A Personal Struggle ...................................................... 105 The World “Laughing” at the United States: Rhetoric of Weakness ....................... 107 Argo as Redemption ......................................................................................................... 113 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 118 References ........................................................................................................................ 122 Chapter 5 Conclusion: Presidential Memory and the Post-Presidency ................................... 129 References ........................................................................................................................ 137 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have been possible without the support of a variety of individuals. I would be remiss if my first acknowledgement was not to my advisor, Dr. Mary Stuckey, who has guided this thesis from its inception. Her comments at every stage, from one-page memos to full line edits of earlier drafts (returned with supernatural speed) were instrumental in its timely completion. Beyond that, I am grateful for her investment in my growth as a writer and scholar. Both members of my committee have also been influential. Dr. Stephen Browne’s Rhetorical Criticism seminar both expanded my understanding of what rhetorical critics actually do and served as the beginning
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