The Rhetoric of Exorcism: George W. Bush and the Return of Political Demonology

EVER SINCE THE commercial airline missiles destroyed New York City's World Trade Center on 9/11/01, images of violence and catastrophe have seared the collective mind. A popular image shot by freelance photographer Mark Phillips seemed to capture the face of a demon in a large plume of smoke emanating

from one of the twin towers (see fig. 1). Soon after the Associated Press secured one-time printing rights to the so-called "smoke demon" image, it became available to Internet users who quickly disseminated it with foreboding commentary about the Christian apocalypse. For many evangelical Protestants in particular, the smoke demon provided evidence that the "current seat of Satan's power" resides in American financial institutions, and that the demise of the World Trade Center is a sign from God (or the Devil) that the end-time is near (Mikkelson & Mikkelson). The goal of this essay is to show how speech writers used a similar, demonic anthropomorphism to craft a righteous presidential rhetoric that helped overcome the widespread experience of anomie and speechlessness caused by the violence of 9/11.