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1 Trumpism Against the Public Interest: a Political 1 TRUMPISM AGAINST THE PUBLIC INTEREST: A POLITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS by WALTER LAMONT TAYLOR DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Texas at Arlington December 2020 Arlington, Texas Dissertation Committee: Dr. Alejandro Rodriguez, Chair Dr. Karabi Bezboruah Dr. Rod Hissong 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work was supported by generous scholarships and a research assistantship, with Dr. Alejandro Rodriguez, from the University of Texas at Arlington. I thank Dr. Alejandro Rodriguez for his thought-provoking insights into public budgeting, public policy, and public administration theory which helped me to decide to write a dissertation about Trumpism and New Public Management. I also want to thank Dr. Rodriguez for his mentoring, constant encouragement and guidance going back to when I began the Master of Public Administration at UTA’s School of Urban and Public Affairs (SUPA) in 2008. I thank Dr. Karabi Bezboruah and Dr. Rod Hissong for their constant encouragement, guidance, and critical feedback during the dissertation proposal defense. A special thanks to Dr. Bezboruah who agreed to serve on my dissertation committee upon our first meeting. A special thanks to Dr. Hissong who remained on my dissertation committee despite recently retiring from UTA. I want to thank Dr. Jerry Taylor and Dr. Fred Aquino, former professors at Abilene Christian University, now mentors and friends, who have constantly encouraged me to finish my Ph.D. I want to thank Carol Lucky, the CEO of the North Texas Behavioral Health Authority and my employment supervisor where I serve in the role of Chief Strategy Officer, who has been a constant source of encouragement towards my completion of the Ph.D, assuring that I had ample time off from work to complete the dissertation in these final weeks and over the past three years. Finally, I want to thank the many members of my extended family, friends, and colleagues who have supported me emotionally and spiritually during this 7-year journey. Most of all, I want to thank God who has carried me during this process of discovery, research, and writing! My completing this degree is a testament to the truth of Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” 3 DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to my loving and supporting wife of twenty-seven years, Martrese. It seems that I have been in school for most of our life together. Thank you for supporting and encouraging me to finish the Ph.D, through all the trials, tribulations, and triumphs we have experienced together. You have been my biggest cheerleader and the grounding of our family while I have worked and pursued academia. I could not have accomplished this undertaking without you! I love you and thank God for you! I dedicate this dissertation to my children: Cilicia, Ezekiel, Samaria, and Malacci for your constant love, support, and for being an inspiration for me to complete the Ph.D. Ultimately, I wanted to make you all proud of me and to be able to inspire all of you to courageously and tenaciously pursue your dreams unto fulfillment. I dedicate this dissertation to my grandchildren: Elijah, Milah, E’mori, and Zarah. You all are the greatest sources of my love, joy, and laughter, on planet earth, and have been very welcome interruptions from the rigors of dissertation writing! Finally, I want to dedicate this dissertation to my dearly departed mother, Phyliss, who left me all too soon. You did not have a lot of money. You did not have a lot of formal education. Nevertheless, from day one, you instilled in me the belief that I could be and do whatever I wanted to be and do. This was the greatest gift that you could have bestowed on me along with your constant love and encouragement! It is because of you that I have always dreamt big. Thanks, momma! I love you and hope that you are proud of what your boy done did! 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………………2 DEDICATION…………………………………………………………………………………3 LIST OF FIGURES & TABLES………………………………………………………………5 ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………………...6 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………7 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………………………..28 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY……………………………………………………46 CHAPTER FOUR: MERIT-BASED IMMIGRATION……………………………………..63 CHAPTER FIVE: COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT…………………177 CHAPTER SIX: FINDINGS……………………………………………………………….242 REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………………..262 APPENDIX A………………………………………………………………………………271 APPENDIX B………………………………………………………………………………273 5 LIST OF FIGURES & TABLES Figure 3.1 Example of Fairclough & Fairclough’s (2012) method for diagramming arguments…49 3.2 Example of using Fairclough & Fairclough’s (2012) method to diagram the proposed FY 2018 Budget Blueprint’s argument for merit-based immigration……………………..50 4.1 The argument for merit-based immigration in “Reform Immigration Policy” of Trump’s FY 2018 proposed Budget……………………………………………………………..69 4.2 President Trump’s Comments re: The RAISE Act……………………………………100 4.3 Senator Cotton’s Comments re: The RAISE Act……………………………………..106 4.4 Senator Perdue’s Comments re: The RAISE Act……………………………………..112 5.1 The argument for eliminating the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program in the proposed FY 2018 Budget Blueprint…………………………………182 5.2 OMB Director Mulvaney’s March 16, 2017 Press Conference………………………193 Table 4.1 Argument Evaluation Matrix: Merit-Based Immigration……………………………..175 5.1 Argument Evaluation Matrix: Community Development Block Grant………………239 6.1 Research Results & Discussion……………………………………………………….256 6 ABSTRACT TRUMPISM AGAINST THE PUBLIC INTEREST: A POLITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS Walter Lamont Taylor, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Arlington Chair of Dissertation Committee: Alejandro Rodriguez Trumpism has come to mean different things to different people. This dissertation explores whether Trumpism is an extreme form of New Public Management, privileging values of efficiency and effectiveness, in public policy and public administration, to the exclusion of the value of social equity. Fairclough & Fairclough’s (2012) political discourse analysis method is applied to Trump’s immigration policy to enact merit-based immigration and to his housing policy to eliminate the Community Development Block Grant program. Using Fairclough & Fairclough’s (2012) political discourse analysis method consisting of argumentation theory and critical discourse analysis, along with Frederickson’s “Compound Theory of Social Equity” (1990, 1997, and 2010), this dissertation seeks to answer: 1. Do the New Public Management arguments supporting Trump’s policies withstand critical evaluation? and 2. Do the New Public Management values espoused by President Trump and his key policy advocates differ from traditional democratic governance? 7 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Do the New Public Management arguments supporting Trump’s policies withstand critical evaluation? Do the New Public Management values espoused by President Trump and his key policy advocates differ from traditional values of democratic governance? These two questions will be pursued through the methodology of “political discourse analysis” as set forth in Fairclough & Fairclough’s (2012) Political Discourse Analysis: A Method for Advanced Students. For, according to Fairclough & Fairclough, “Evaluation of arguments is seen as a providing a sound (rigorous, non-arbitrary) basis for normative and explanatory critique” (2012: 13).This dissertation will evaluate whether or not Trump’s policies, in the areas of housing and immigration, survive scrutiny from a logical and dialectical perspective as understood in argumentation theory (Fairclough & Fairclough 2012). Overall, this dissertation will explore the possibility that Trumpism is an extreme application of New Public Management, focusing myopically on efficiency and effectiveness (otherwise notable aims of public policy and public administration), rather than on traditional democratic governance which also includes the concept of social equity as set forth in Frederickson’s “Compound Theory of Social Equity” (Frederickson 1990, 1997, and 2010). Arguably, Trumpism fails to meet the standard set forth by the authors of Reinventing Government (1992), which is considered by many to be a seminal work in New Public Management. For, they cite “equity” as an essential aim of public policy and public administration: Business does some things better than government, but government does some things better than business. The public sector tends to be better, for instance, at policy management, regulation, ensuring equity, preventing discrimination or exploitation, ensuring continuity and stability of services, and ensuring social 8 cohesion (through the mixing of races and classes, for example, in the public schools) (Osborne & Gaebler 1992: 45-46). It makes sense to put the delivery of many public services in private hands (whether for-profit or nonprofit), if by doing so a government can get more effectiveness, efficiency, equity, or accountability. But we should not mistake this for some grand ideology of privatizing government (Osborne & Gaebler 1992: 47) Why Housing and Immigration? Before introducing the discussion with regards to Trump’s policies in the areas of housing and immigration, a brief discussion is appropriate as to why the author chose to focus on these specific policy areas and not others?
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