My main question after this week's readings is whether or not the theories posed by the authors can be said to hold for this election cycle. I'm focusing on Berlinerblau as that's the reading I'm covering during discussion, and I agreed with many of his conclusions about recent elections, and the rapid increase in religious speech during presidential events. If I understand correctly, he posed a theory that, unless the secular side of America became more effective, religious speech would increasingly show up in political speech.
Now that we're in the middle of a presidential race, I wonder if his theory holds true. Certainly, religious speech has appeared in debates thus far, but for his theory to hold true it would have to be present more than in previous elections. I don't know if this argument holds true. From doing research, I know Cruz comes from a highly religious family, but it seems like he's somewhat minimized the amount of biblical speech in his debates. To be fair, I haven't watched all of them, but I have watched a few and it seems like by-and-large, thanks to Trump's version of rhetoric, that biblical references aren't what the crowds are shouting for now, being set aside for bold accusations, name calling, and extreme plans that hinge on fears held by right wing Americans. In my opinion, Berlinerblau was spot on when talking about previous elections, but things have shifted and I don't know if the slope will continue to increase.
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