Periphrasis (per-if’-ra-sis): The substitution of a descriptive word or phrase for a proper name (a species of circumlocution); or, conversely, the use of a proper name as a shorthand to stand for qualities associated with it. (Circumlocutions are rhetorically useful as euphemisms, as a method of amplification, or to hint at something without stating it.)
Hey look, it’s The Liar—fooling all of his followers all of the time. His technique is to appear to believe himself, himself. He affects righteous indignation all day every day, floating his lies on it with a raised voice, rolling eyes and wild gestures. The only time he slows down is to compliment Newsmax, because they compliment him and repeat his lies.
Lincoln was the Great Emancipator. Trump is the Great Prevaricator. Both Republicans. Two different trajectories. One directed us to affect charity toward the defeated after a war, the other, directs us to affect malice toward the winners after an election. Trump’s rebuke is a raw display of his sense of entitlement’s delusional inability to deal with democracy—to accept the majority’s voice as a guarantor of the Republic’s future. Prince Donald sees it differently. He believes he has a right (maybe divine) to be President and that that right has been usurped by a “stolen” election. Yes, “stolen” from him by the will of the people.
Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).
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