Kelley points out that although much attention has focused on the tribalism engulfing the Republican Party since the emergence of the Tea Party movement in 2009, little has been given to the tribalism affecting the Democratic Party…. But Kelley remains optimistic and suggests rhetorical measures that could lead to a less toxic political environment. Her book speaks to timely political issues that will interest communications scholars and political scientists alike. Recommended. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals.

Choice Reviews

“As a reader trying to make sense of political disorder throughout the pandemic, I celebrate the humane reflections in Democratic Disunity: Rhetorical Tribalism in 2020. This well-written and tightly reasoned book analyzes the rhetorical workings of group identifications delineated as tribalism. Dr. Colleen Kelley highlights the significance of destabilizing between-and-within-party communication practices that impact US democracy. Her final chapters and conclusions move the reader smoothly toward remedial measures that offer hope for reconciliation through judicious rhetorical acts.”

Anna Eblen, Western Washington University

“Democratic Disunity: Rhetorical Tribalism in 2020 is excellent and a rarity these days: interesting, extremely well-written and addressing profound questions. Dr. Kelley examines the ‘relationship among rhetoric, civility, power and politics.’ She describes the current political situation as ‘toxic partisan tribalism,’ steadily worsening since the end of the Cold War. ‘The contentious 2020 presidential campaign laid bare these deep divisions in American society, exhibiting tribal politics.’ Remedies are not easy but might involve ‘think(ing) about what you don’t know’ and ‘check(ing) your assumptions.’ Above all, a thought-provoking book.”

John Gamble, The Pennsylvania State University

Planting a position on the solid ground of centrism, Colleen Elizabeth Kelley unearths useful analytical insights by excavating the political rhetoric of the Trump years. Kelley not only adds to the national public discussion about the polarization of the American two-party system, but also maps out the maze of discursive and ideological trenches that separate the various “tribes” within the Democratic Party itself.

Stephen R. Duncan

This superbly crafted text weaves a highly compelling, coherent and finely nuanced account of how the radical left and right of the American liberal-conservative continuum operate as two tribes that collaboratively define not only each other but a common contempt for the center using parallel rhetorical devices. What is more, Kelley challenges the view that this opposition is founded on beliefs and ideology. Instead, in line with Anderson and Hoekstra, (2019), Buchanan (2020) and Packer (2018) , she argues that tribal opposition is more about social identity work than cognition. At the same time, Democratic Disunity is an optimistic text, proposing that understanding political tribalism and the discursive forms that sustain it provides a way forward towards intraparty reconciliation; one that could furnish the public with a basis for developing discursive skills to transcend the ‘ultra-partisan binaries’ in US intraparty tribes and reconnect party members to the nation’s political system. In so doing, Kelley is making a highly constructive literary contribution to political thought; one I highly recommend to US citizens and international observers alike.

Colleen E. Mills, University of Canterbury