American Decline in the Perspective of Democrats and Republicans: Otherization and Construction of American Identity in Election Speeches

The decline of America is a topic that has been the focus of Iran's scientific and political communities, however, less attention has been paid to its internal aspects, including the difference of opinion between conservatives and liberals in the field. This difference of view has been crystallized in the two areas of defining American identity and America's international position. The existence of different views has caused a lack of agreement to stop the decline and the common identity is weakened. Using the method of critical discourse analysis, this article examines the speeches of prominent people of the two main American parties, focusing on the period of Trump's rise, in order to identify themes related to decline. The theory of social identity and specifically the concept of common identity within the group has been used to analyze the data. The results of this analysis confirm the existence of a deep difference in the definition of what America is, and at the same time, there is a consensus in matters such as American exceptionalism.