Harris-Trump debate: How words like 'freedom' and 'truth' were used to spark emotions

more now on what is expected to be the most watched event in this US presidential election campaign kamla Harris and Donald Trump are expected to have had an audience in the tens of millions but the crucial audience for both candidates is far smaller it's the voters who still haven't made up their minds in a handful of battleground States as you would expect Ballot Box issues like the economy immigration and abortion rights were key issues in the debate last night and someone who was listening not just watching but listening keenley is our next guest you're certainly going to know her longtime journalist at CBC uh as it happens of course the host of that wonderful radio program Carol off is an author and she has a book out it's very timely called at a loss for words conversation in the age of rage and Carol's with me this morning and I couldn't be happier to welcome you so I wanted people to understand this book um how words are being used to define civil society and social justice and how words are either losing their meaning or their meaning is being distorted that's the premise for this as I say incredibly timely book because you focus on six words Freedom democracy truth woke choice and taxes some of which came up in the debate last night so I thought Carol listen and come in and talk to me what did you think overall as you listen to the language of the debate last night well one way or another all those words were sort of coded into the discussion and what I've noticed about language is that we it's not usually truthful anymore especially when it comes to Donald Trump it's emotional and so uh and also I'm hearing KLA Harris figuring that out too that words uh language is emotional you push buttons you make people feel things um and so I was listening very carefully to hear the subtext of the conversation last night so on we're going to focus on three of the words that you indeed focus on in your book the first is freedom and she references that in terms of reprod productive Freedom this is what happened in the debate last night understand in his project 2025 there would be a National Abortion a monitor that would be monitoring your pregnancies your miscarriages I think the American people believe that certain freedoms in particular the freedom to make decisions about one's own body should not be made by the government what did you hear last night about freedom on the debate stage and and and in the campaign as well the word freedom is the absolutely the most interesting thing as as language over the the Takeover of camel Harris of the the Democratic nomination that she has taken that word back this is a word Freedom belongs to conservatives Republicans this is the the to Live Free or Die kind of idea but now she has taken it and and points out that there is Republicans who are saying we're going to limit your freedom and decide when and when and the the spacing and timing of your children she also refers to freedom of in in the economy she's saying we want to give you Freedom uh to to live well to to free from want free from Freedom From Fear and so they own that language now they own the word freedom and that used to be the word you never hear Donald Trump mention Freedom it's all on the side of the Democrats you did hear him mention democracy another of your keywords last night and he did so in referencing that summer assassination attempt he referenced a democracy in this comment we got this is the that weaponized not me she weaponized I probably took a bullet to the head because of the things that they say about me they talk about democracy I'm a threat to democracy they're the threat to democracy with a fake Russia Russia Russia investigation that went nowhere the threat to democracy what did you hear in that exchange it was mostly goby go but what he's saying in that is that is he says you're saying I'm the threat to democracy uh you have weaponized the word democracy these are amazingly important uh phrases that he's throwing out there because he has he is a threat to democracy he mentions in the debate his admiration for Victor Orban the prime minister of Hungary a man who took a lively vibrant democracy and turned it into a quasi dictatorship he admires that and she throws back you admire these strong men you do not want democracy you do not like it and in fact he's speaking to his followers who who have made it clear that they feel that democracy is a kind of dated thing that democracy gives the vote to too many of the wrong people and that they don't they not don't have a particular affection for democracy anymore another word the third and final one I'd like to hear a clip of in terms of what you thought of it was taxes lots of talk about tariffs and taxes and then I want to hear what you're thinking in terms of what the word taxes now has come to mean so this is how it featured in the debate last night his plan is to do what he has done before which is to provide a tax cut for billionaires and big corporations which will result in$ trillion to America's deficit my opponent has a plan that I call the Trump's sales tax which would be a 20% tax on everyday Goods that you rely on to get through the month first of all I have no sales tax that's an incorrect statement she knows that uh we're doing tariffs on other countries so taxes loaded fraught right now Carol that's one of my words oddly enough but um it's because taxes is the price we pay to live in a civil society and so if we eliminate taxes which is one of the the proposals of Donald Trump for for a lot of people we end up with this huge separation between rich and poor people which is already extreme in the United States and it's growing in Canada but what's so interesting when he answered that question he didn't talk about the the the tariffs which he can't really defend he turns it into this immigration rant right when he starts talking talking about how there are now he's up to now 20 million uh immigrants are in the country they're they're criminals they're drug dealers they're from insane asylums and they're and they're voting and they are destroying America they're doing all these horrible things because what he's doing there is to speak to his base which which is feeling this emotional hatred of the other he tries to otherize people you know and say that there are these shadowy forces and I'm going to defend you against them he codes this language it's very clever how he speaks to his base so you heard that last night we're into now less than two months of campaigning left to go what will you be listening to as far as the language of this campaign in the days to come and what is concerning for you in the kind of language that you're hearing I think people shouldn't dismiss um what Donald Trump did last night as being effective for his base I mean this is like well that kamla Harris won she nailed it she put him down they're not listen for his facts they don't care what they they know what he says may or may not be true it doesn't matter it's how he makes them feel that matters how he speaks to their rage their anger their insecurity their uncertainty he speaks to that in these coded languages about the shadowy forces that he's going to defend them from and he and and and that he's all these things when he talks about how the the immigrants are are eating people's pets in in Ohio which sounds Bonkers but I've heard that in Trump uh uh rallies people are saying did you hear that this is happening he says they're executing their babies after they're born I've heard people in those rallies talk about that that weird stuff actually resonates with his base and that's really frightening Carol come back anytime it's great to see you and again reminding the new book at a loss for words conversation in the age of Rage timely indeed Carol off our guest this morning on CBC morning live thank you