Copyright by Matthew B. Morris 2017 The Dissertation Committee for Matthew B. Morris Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Virtual Movements: Populist Rhetoric, Technology, and Hegemony Committee: Joshua Gunn, Supervisor D D Davis Sharon Jarvis Barry Brummett Dana Cloud Virtual Movements: Populist Rhetoric, Technology, and Hegemony by Matthew B. Morris Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August 2017 Dedication For The People Acknowledgements I want to start by thanking my parents, Fr. John and Dr. Cheryl Morris, and my sister, Elizabeth Morris, for their love and support. Growing up in a house full of books is what started me on this journey. Thanks to Joshua Gunn for his advice and patience while I was working on this project. His model for teaching and scholarship will continue to be a guide throughout my career. I want to also thank my committee, Diane Davis, Sharon Jarvis, Dana Cloud, and Barry Brummett who have each taught me so much through their feedback and guidance. A special thanks to my adviser for my master’s thesis, Daniel Brouwer, who continued to believe I could do this even when I did not. There are too many people to name but I want to especially thank my writing buddies and friends Melissa Murphy, Kate Blackburn, Marnie Ritchie, Jenna Hanchey, LaRae Tronstad, Kayla Rhidenour, Elizabeth Glowaki, and Joe Faina. I have been lucky to have met so many great friends and colleagues during this journey, and a special thanks is due to Cynthia Peacock, Maegan Stephens, Elizabeth Goins, Ashley Muddiman, Robert McDonald, Bryan McCann, Ashley Mack, Tiara Naputi, Sean Tiffee, John McKenzie, Josh Hanan, McAllen Halsey, Jason Fischer, Ashley Marie Sanders, Scott Balcerzak, Danee Pye, Gamze Yilmaz, Roy Christopher, Clare Boyle, Clariza Ruiz de Castilla, Valerie Thatcher Murphy, Maryanne Taylor, Leah Lefebvre, Nick Merola, Joe McGlynn, Ashley Barrett, Rob Mack, Kristin Stimpson, and Sarah Vartabedian. v Virtual Movements: Populist Rhetoric, Technology, and Hegemony Matthew B. Morris, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2017 Supervisor: Joshua Gunn After the Financial Crisis of 2008, The Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street both claimed to be “The People” seeking representation. Each of these movements had very different narratives about the flaws in our political system, and each movement proposed conflicting solutions. In this dissertation, I offer the theory of virtual movements as a way of understanding the role media technologies play in shaping our political perceptions as groups struggle for hegemony. I analyze the narrative of the Tea Party as it is disseminated through conservative media with a broadcast structure that emphasizes fidelity to an idealized past as the solution to our current problems; For Occupy, the rejection of representation and desire to embody direct democracy without mediation relies upon a metaphysics of presence modeled on social media in which the ideal is a simulation of immediacy. Each of these movements claimed to operate without a leader, but reproduced a system of authority through their dependence on technology. vi Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................1 Defining the Objects of Study: Tea Party and Occupy Movement Rhetoric ..6 Research Questions Motivating the Dissertation Study: Rhetorically Negotiating "The People"..................................................9 Literature Review: Tea Party and Occupy ....................................................11 The Tea Party .......................................................................................13 Occupy .................................................................................................22 Chapter 2: Theory and Method ..............................................................................34 A Note on Political Media and Perceptions ....................................................3 Literature Review: Social Movements and Hegemony ..................................6 Literature Review: Media Technology .........................................................15 Movement Media Ecologies ................................................................25 The Populist Frame: Tribes and Territories ..................................................29 Research Questions, Method, and Selection of Texts...................................46 A Populist Pentad .................................................................................48 Texts/Contexts .....................................................................................50 Chapter 3: Mourning in America ...........................................................................53 The Logic of Representation in Conservative Media ...................................57 The Dogmatic Image of Thought .........................................................62 Contemporary Conservative Media and the Dogmatic Image of Thought ..........................................67 Analysis: The Tea Party Narrative ................................................................73 The Crisis: The Market Versus the Government .................................79 The People and the Enemy: Reagan Versus Obama ............................90 Tribes, Territories, and Time ......................................................................103 Chapter 4: The Politics of Presence in Occupy’s Assemblies .............................112 Media Affects: The Internet as Structuring Technology ............................118 Productive Consumers: The Internet and Occupy .............................119 vii The Crisis: “We are the 99%” and the Failure of the American Dream ....................................127 The People and Their Enemy: The Demand for Authenticity ...........134 The Territory of Occupy and the Politics of Presence ................................138 Conclusion: Making America Great Again .........................................................145 Research Questions and Findings: ..............................................................152 Limitations ..................................................................................................164 Directions for future research: ....................................................................167 Implications: ...............................................................................................168 Bibliography ........................................................................................................175 Vita .....................................................................................................................195 viii Chapter 1: Introduction This is about the people. This is about the people. And it's bigger than any king or queen of a Tea Party. And it's a lot bigger than any charismatic guy with a teleprompter. – Sarah Palin to the 2010 Tea Party Convention1 We demand an end to legitimized corruption / through a constitutional reversal / of the Citizens United decision. / This will help the American people. / Have a pleasant day. – Occupy Charleston to Rep. Michele Bachmann2 The USS Yorktown in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, was a fitting setting for a foreign policy speech. On November 10, 2011, Representative Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota, a candidate for the Republican nomination for president and founder of the Tea Party Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives, was giving her foreign policy address in front of the ship when members of Occupy Charleston rose in unison to interrupt her speech.3 As she said “the American consumer,” a single voice yelled “mic check!” which was echoed by a handful of young people dispersed through the crowd. In this disruption, the protestors were using a technique known as “the human microphone” that was developed by Occupy Wall Street protesters when the latter were banned by 1Sarah Palin, “Keynote Address at 2010 Tea Party Convention,” CNN, Feb. 6, 2010, http://archives.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1002/06/cnr.09.html. 2Brandon Fish, “Michele Bachmann Gets Mic Checked by Occupy Charleston, South Carolina,” YouTube, Nov. 10, 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9e34kHANHs. 3“‘Occupy Wall Street’ protestors interrupt Bachmann speech,” NBC News, Nov. 10, 2011, http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2011/11/10/8739200-occupy-wall-street-protesters-interrupt- bachmann-speech. My description of the speech itself comes from the YouTube video referenced in the previous footnote, but the context is from the NBC account. 1 New York City noise ordinances from using megaphones. Occupy Charleston was part of a larger movement most famously known as Occupy Wall Street (hereafter “Occupy” for short) that developed in the Fall of 2011 to demand economic justice after the financial crisis of 2008. When a member is speaking, she or he says a phrase and then pauses so that the rest of the gathered protestors can repeat what is said. In this case, Occupy Charleston activists accused Bachmann of “capitaliz[ing] on dividing Americans / claiming people that disagree with you / are unpatriotic socialists / and you promote discrimination.” They criticized Bachmann and, by extension, the Tea Party, for accepting funding from Americans for Prosperity, a group founded by oil billionaires David and Charles Koch. By saying that Bachmann has