Corona-GATE

Governor Cuomo has been at the center of the Coronavirus spotlight the past three months and his popularity among American citizens has grown as well. In a recent poll by Siena College, respondents were asked who they trusted more to reopen New York, Trump or Cuomo. The results showed that 78% trusted Cuomo, while only 16% trusted President Trump in the decision to reopen the state. This poll shows how iconic of an individual Governor Cuomo has become in such a short amount of time. His actions and rising popularity have driven people, especially among the Democrat Party, to encourage Governor Cuomo to run against Trump in the upcoming 2020 Presidential Election. There have even been shirts made with the slogan “Lead Like Cuomo”. In Hariman and Lucaites writing, they noted how shirts with some form of iconic meaning behind them promote everyday discussion about a topic. “By tracking Iwo Jima paraphernalia such as figurines, commemorative plates, paperweights, plaques, wall hangings,...

     A recent photo of a man protesting at Michigan’s Capitol Hill has been going viral. It depicts the unmasked man screaming at two police officers both wearing protective masks during a protest. It has been revealed that Brian Cash, the protester, claims to not have been screaming in anybody’s face, but rather a police officer behind those in the picture who he saw assault a woman the day before. The photo has been circulating throughout the media, with many finding it compelling due to its aggressive tone. As tensions grow between US citizens and those enforcing the social distancing measure that state governments have placed, pictures like these have been compelling many people to question whether their safety or personal freedom should be prioritized during the COVID-19 pandemic.      The photo shows Cash as one of many protesters at the venue hidden in the background but still part of the picture. They stand lined up face-to-face with cops in unifo...

Opinion columnist, Charles Blow, wrote an article in the NY Times that sheds light on the ways in which politicians’ responses to the coronavirus are “heavily overlaid with political calculations.” Blow notes that “in general, a national crisis benefits the incumbent, if the nation is perceived to be at war against an outside actor.” Using this logic, we can explore President Trump’s reaction to the virus in order to gain understanding of his attempts to control symbolic meaning over the pandemic as an event. Iconic photography and apocalyptic narrative are used in an attempt to frame this situation in a way where Americans are at war against an opponent.  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/29/opinion/coronavirus-pandemic-politics.html The photo above was taken of the U.S.N.S. Comfort’s departure for New York City from Norfolk, Virginia. Trump deployed the hospital ship in order to relieve health care professionals in New York City, an area that has been hit hard by the viru...

Afomia: Hello, everyone!  Thea: This week, we’re going to be discussing iconicity, which we’ve been talking about in our Sociology class. Elliott: Different from text, icons are condensations of symbols in specific material form. When we first encounter an icon, we pull together denotations and connotations of moral depth together. In that sense, there’s a certain surface-depth dynamic that’s involved. Icons are fundamental in communicating and experiencing public life.  Gage: Icons are everywhere. They have been popping up all over social media and the news recently, due to COVID-19.   Afomia: For example, I’ve seen lots of photographs of protesters going around, some of which have been really compelling. There have been symbols of medicine appearing in the media, especially since almost every hospital in the country has been very active in fighting the disease. https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-texas-lockdown-protesters-anti-vaxxers-chant-fir...

When Trump ran in 2016, his slogans like “Make America Great Again” and “Build the Wall” were staples during his campaign, slogans that, due to its vagueness and allure, proved successful in getting him elected. He often used what many would classify as incredibly offensive rhetoric, most notably towards Mexican immigrants. When talking about Mexican immigrants, he would say things like “they’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.“ They’re taking our jobs…They’re taking our money .” He would use an us vs. them rhetoric, a type of rhetoric that has proven successful in gaining followers. This parallels what Karakaya argues when discussing interrelated dichotomies of us vs them. Similar to how Erdogan sets up key binary oppositions, Trump creates an us vs. them dynamic in which the U.S is us and Mexico is them.  However, with the 2020 election nearing, such slogans like MAGA will not have the same effect as they had in the 2016 election. However, a recent ar...