| Abstrakt: |
Created Equal, an anti-abortion organization based in Ohio, argues it is fulfilling the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement (CRM) by fighting widespread and systemic age discrimination. Putting to work the images, tactics, and rhetorics of the Civil Rights Movement and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK), Created Equal argues abortion enacts ageism and is worthy of formal civil rights protection. I argue that Created Equal leverages the ideographic ethos and pathos of the CRM and MLK to tap into American public memory of the man and the movement, then use them as ciphers in which they invest their own connotative meaning. This appropriation or coopting of the rhetorical legacy of MLK and CRM allows Created Equal to repurpose the past towards contemporary political ends incongruous with King and the movement. I draw implications to broader neoliberal rhetorical practices that appropriate progressive narratives, in both form and content, towards traditionally conservative aims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
