America’s Rhetorical Bar Fight and the Struggle to Restore Order

America’s political conversation has left the salon and stumbled into the saloon. Professor Adam Ellwanger joins to examine how the nation’s discourse devolved from the calm civility of the salon to the shouting match of the saloon, and, increasingly, to the violence of the back alley. Once words turn into weapons, persuasion dies and politics becomes survival. From Chicago to Seattle, lawlessness is spreading while leaders look away, allowing chaos to replace conversation. The Democratic Party has become an agent of disorder, excusing destruction and silencing dissent while conservatives debate how to respond. Can the right defend itself in a saloon brawl without losing the virtues of the salon? And what will it take to bring the country back to reason, truth, and restraint before the last lamp in the salon goes dark?

On this episode of The Spectacle Podcast, hosts Melissa Mackenzie and Scott McKay are joined by University of Houston–Downtown professor Adam Ellwanger, author of “Charlie Kirk and the Rhetoric of the Saloon.” They unpack Ellwanger’s powerful metaphor of the salon, the saloon, and the back alley, and what these spaces say about the state of American discourse today. Tune in to hear their discussion!