Metaphors of War and Construction of National Identity: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Democratic and Republican Speeches of American Electoral Candidates (2024)

Abstract

This research examines the use of war metaphors in construction of national identity and political ideology in the 2024 electoral speeches of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Utilizing Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Conceptual Metaphor Theory, this study investigates how linguistic and rhetorical tools reflect and reproduce ideological distinctions between Republican and Democratic narratives. The campaign speeches of both candidates are analyzed focusing on how Trump’s discourse is constructed through war metaphors and described as the battle to survive; on the other hand, Harris’s messaging employs construction metaphors to illustrate unity, rebuilding, and collective progress. Using qualitative textual analysis that employs Fairclough’s three-dimensional model of CDA, the findings show that Trump’s metaphors bolster a narrative of nationalism and defensive patriotism that develops an “us versus them” ideology, while Harris’s metaphors contribute to inclusivity, democratic restoration, and moral renewal. The analysis, particularly comparing the metaphors across both candidates reveals how metaphorical framing serves as a discursive instrument of legitimizing power and building American identity in a polarized political environment. This research adds to our understanding of the role of political language in the construction of ideological worldviews, while simultaneously underlining the importance and power of metaphor in delineating contemporary narratives of nationhood.  Identifying such nationhood in American democracy is imperative.

Keywords:  Metaphor, identity, democratic, republican, speeches, electoral candidates