Understanding the Usage of Polarizing Rhetoric in the X Posts Sent by American Senators in 2023: A Directed Content Analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47611/jsr.v13i3.2646Keywords:
Political Polarization, Elite Polarization, Polarizing Rhetoric, Partisan Polarization, Ideological Polarization, Content Analysis, Directed Content Analysis, Communications, Political Communication, The Senate, Congress, Congressional Rhetoric, PolarizationAbstract
Political polarization has been gradually increasing, particularly among political elites like politicians, in a process known as elite polarization that has been linked to numerous undesirable political phenomena like political disunity, legislative gridlock, public disengagement with the political system, and ineffective policy making. Political elites engage in polarizing behavior through their social media messaging, politically their communications on X, formerly Twitter. One of the most concerning types of this polarizing behavior is the usage of polarizing rhetoric, or language meant to draw distinctions between group identities in order to affirm one message while subverting another. Research has already been done on the usage of polarizing rhetoric in the X posts, formerly tweets, of all members of Congress. However, research has yet to be done on the usage of polarizing rhetoric in the X posts of senators specifically, as well as on whether political party affects this usage. This paper uses a directed content analysis to study this topic, and finds that polarizing rhetoric is used to a very limited extent in the X posts of senators in 2023, and that the political party of senators has no statistically significant impact on their likelihood of using polarizing rhetoric in their X posts. This has implications for the structure of the House of Representatives and its proceedings, voter advocacy for bipartisan activity, and the current understanding of differences in polarization between the House and the Senate.
Downloads
Metrics
References or Bibliography
Ballard, Andrew O. Et. Al. (2023). Dynamics of Polarizing Rhetoric in Congressional Tweets. Legislative Studies Quarterly, 48(1), 105-144. https://doi.org/10.1111/lsq.12374
Cook, J. M. (2017). Twitter Adoption and Activity in U.S. Legislatures: A 50-State Study. American Behavioral Scientist, 61(7), 724-740. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764217717564
DeSilver, Drew. (2022). The polarization in today’s Congress has roots that go back decades. The Pew Research Center. www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/10/the-polarization-in-todays-congress-has-roots-that-go-back-decades/
Dimock, Michael and John Gramlich. (2021). How America Changed During Donald Trump’s Presidency. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/2021/01/29/how-america-changed-during-donald-trumps-presidency/
Druckman, James N. et. al. (2013). How Elite Partisan Polarization Affects Public Opinion Formation. The American Political Science Review, 107(1), 57-79. www.jstor.org/stable/23357757
Eady, Gregory Et. Al. (2018). Comparing Trump to the greatest—and the most polarizing—presidents in US history. The Brookings Institution. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/comparing-trump-to-the-greatest-and-the-most-polarizing-presidents-in-u-s-history/
Evans, Heather K. (2014). Twitter Style: An Analysis of How House Candidates Used Twitter in Their 2012 Campaigns. PS: Political Science and Politics, 47(2), 454-46. www.jstor.org/stable/43284570
Farina, Cynthia R. (2015). Congressional Polarization: Terminal Constitutional Dysfunction? Columbia Law Review, 115(1689), 1689-1738.
Goldsworthy, Alison and Julian L. Huppert. (2020). Bleak Future Ahead: The Science Behind Contemporary Polarization. Horizons: Journal of International Relations and Sustainable Development, 15, 60-69. www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/48573637
Hare, Christopher and Keith T. Poole. (2014). The Polarization of Contemporary American Politics. Polity, 46(3), 411-429. www.jstor.org/stable/24540219
Heltzel, Gordon and Kristin Laurin. (2020). Polarization in America: Two Possible Futures. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 34:179-184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.03.008.
Hong, Sounman and Sun Hyoung Kim. (2016). Political Polarization on Twitter: Implications for the Use of Social Media in Digital Governments. Government Information Quarterly, 33(4), 777. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2016.04.007
Jacobson, Gary C. (2013). “Partisan Polarization in American Politics: A Background Paper.” Presidential Studies Quarterly, 43(4), 688-708. www.jstor.org/stable/43285346
Kleinfeld, Rachel. (2023). Polarization, Democracy, and Political Violence in the United States: What the Research Says. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Lassen, D., & Brown, A.R. (2011). Twitter: The Electoral Connection? Social Science Computer Review, 29, 419-436. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439310382749
Lee, Jae Mook. (2013). Elite Polarization and Mass Political Engagement: Information, Alienation, and Mobilization. Journal of International and Area Studies, 20(1), 89-109. www.jstor.org/stable/43111517
Lupu, Noam. (2015). Party Polarization and Mass Partisanship: A Comparative Perspective. Political Behavior, 37(2), 331-356. www.jstor.org/stable/43653227
Neiheisel, Jacob R. (2016). The “L” Word: Anti-liberal Campaign Rhetoric, Symbolic Ideology, and the Electoral Fortunes of Democratic Candidates. Political Research Quarterly, 69(3), 418-429. www.jstor.org/stable/44018544
Russell, Annelise. (2021). Minority Opposition and Asymmetric Parties? Senators’ Partisan Rhetoric on Twitter. Political Research Quarterly, 74(3). 615-627. https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912920921239
Russell, Annelise. (2017). U.S. Senators on Twitter: Asymmetric Party Rhetoric in 140 Characters. American Politics Research, 46(4), 695-723. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X17715619
Straus, J. R. Et. Al. (2013). Communicating in 140 characters or less: Congressional adoption of Twitter in the 111th Congress. PS: Political Science and Politics, 46, 60-66. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096512001242
Volden, Craig and Alan E. Wiseman. (2018). Legislative Effectiveness in the United States Senate. The Journal of Politics, 80(2). https://thelawmakers.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/VoldenWisemanJOP2018.pdf
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Copyright (c) 2025 Jinu Kim; Daniel Olivo
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright holder(s) granted JSR a perpetual, non-exclusive license to distriute & display this article.
