Rage on the Record: Angry Emotional Appeals in Congress

Abstract

Members of Congress rely on social media to cultivate political narratives, with anger and an indignant message becoming increasingly central to their self-presentation. Given its heightened capacity for virality and mobilization, angry rhetoric serves as a powerful tool in political communication. This short article examines the role of partisan dynamics in fueling the escalation of angry rhetoric in representatives’ reputation-building online, finding persisting trends that predate President Donald Trump’s notable use of Twitter for agenda-setting. Leveraging computational textual analysis of over 2.2 million official congressional tweets, we demonstrate asymmetric partisan patterns in representatives’ use of angry rhetoric, finding that Democrats are disproportionately driving this trend. These findings further our understanding of lawmakers’ digital reputation-building, contributing to broader discussions about the interplay between partisan politics and the communication strategies lawmakers employ while in office.