The Zohran Mamdani and Donald Trump Love Fest: Undressed by the Unaddressed
As a looooogtime (sic) practitioner of analyzing persuasive communication, let me tell you what to make of the Mamdani-Trump love
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Richard E. Vatz https://wp.towson.edu/vatz/ is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of political rhetoric at Towson University and author of The Only Authentic of Persuasion: the Agenda-Spin Model (Bookwrights House, 2024) and over 200 other works, essays, lectures, and op-eds. He is the benefactor of the Richard E. Vatz Best Debater Award at Towson. The Van Bokkelen Auditorium at Towson University has been named after him.
Author: Richard E. Vatz, Ph.D
Follow-ups: Critical in Politics and The Case of Katie Porter
California’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter may have lost next year’s gubernatorial race through her resistance to a simple follow-up and her cocky, profane demeanor when she ended an interview by testily objecting to her interviewer’s insistence on asking follow-up questions.
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Meet the Press: Tradition Perdition
Throughout my young adulthood, the news and journalistic analysis show Meet the Press was the model of its kind. The closing self-tribute, “If it’s Sunday, it’s Meet the Press” was iterated without embarrassment.
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Dr. Thomas Szasz and Invalid Theories of Violence in Today’s Violent America
But this piece is not about a particular event; it is about the ubiquity in public discourse of mental illness being the cause of every violent, unusual and/or simply off-putting-to-the-observer action of those who are the subject of official or unofficial actions or thoughts.
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Reasonable Optimism on Iran – Sleep Well
President Trump was frustrated by the military actions of Iran and Israel following his announcement of a ceasefire among Iran,
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Mental Illness: Hyperliberalism Run Amuck with Skeptics No Longer in Sight
Colleagues and I have written for decades on the widespread acceptance of the perspectives of psychiatry and psychology and how such starting points have provided the left in our country excuses for bad and illegal behavior.
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The False Pretensions of Today’s Meet the Press
Meet the Press (MTP) has one of the most impressive histories of the Sunday news shows on the major networks. It has been around since 1947, initiated on radio in 1945 as American Mercury Presents: Meet the Press and, in those nearly 60 years since, it has brought to the fore major leaders for sometimes blistering but always informative question-and-answer sessions to promote public awareness of issues of the day – until a number of years ago.
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Political Anger at Trump, Good/Persuasive Writing and The New York Times Columnist Whose Words Fail Him
For over fifty years, I have taught persuasive writing and speaking under the title in my advanced course, Persuasion. I have won a host of teaching awards, lectured widely, and made innumerable media appearances. There is one irrefutable rule: do not let your anger interfere with your writing.
Today, there may be no topic on which this is more applicable than writing about our active president, Donald J. Trump.
Psychiatrist Thomas Szasz Proved Correct: ADHD as Mythological Brain Disease
He didn’t live to see it, but perhaps institutional psychiatry is on the verge of admitting that Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is not biologically based.
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The Salvation of Genuine Political Debate, Missing in Action in Political America
We need debates, substantive debates, not monologues including personal attacks, after principals ignore their opponents’ arguments.
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