http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/06/stephen-miller-donald-trump-2016-policy-adviser-jeff-sessions-213992
I keep meaning to do an OP on this. In many ways I think he is the reason we have Trump. Seeing Trump's rallies and watching people screaming like they were at a rock concert never clicked with me until I read this piece. Miller was the guy ramping the audiences up to such an extent that Trump could have showed up and drooled all over himself, and they still would have cheered.
Dangerous dude.
"...Unlike Trump’s stump speeches, Miller’s speeches are actually speeches. Though he too speaks extemporaneously, Miller gives his warm-up routine a recognizable rhetorical and thematic skeleton: he alliterates, he alludes, he uses parallel structure. His warm-ups have an arc, but it’s one that stops at its apogee, leaving the crowd just hungry enough for the denouement, for “the one man who can help us” to ride in and spitball.
With time, Miller has grown more confident on the stump. His speeches have grown more elaborate. “We have been betrayed and let down by politicians year after year after year after year after year after year,” he went on, before launching into a call-and-response. “They say, 'Oh, well, we’re going to secure the border.' Do they ever get it secure, folks?”
“No!” shouts the crowd. Miller closes his eyes and shakes his head.
“They say, 'Oh, well, we’re going to bring back our manufacturing jobs'; but do those jobs ever come back?”
“No!”
“They say they’re going to clean up D.C. and kick out the special interests. Do the special interests ever go?”
“No!”
Miller’s speeches have also gathered quite a following. Videos of them get tens of thousands of views, and Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller sometimes adds transcripts of them along with the video. Miller is loquacious, well-spoken, intelligent, say his friends and colleagues. He is convincing. He even has two converts under his belt: his parents are now conservative Republicans, active donors in California GOP circles. I asked Miller what it feels like to give one of these speeches, to feel the energy of the crowd. “Donald Trump has said that he’s leading a movement, and that’s what I feel, that movement, that incredible energy that comes from being part of that movement,” he said. “I’m feeling the same sense of excitement as the people in the audience are about this movement. And frankly, what makes a warm-up speech work is that my enthusiasm and their enthusiasm are equal. So all of us feel at this juncture in history the potential of a fundamental change. It’s a feeling of excitement that comes from knowing that you’re part of something really special.”
In Las Vegas that June night, Miller ended the speech at a fever pitch. “And to the question I have for all of you,” he began his crescendo, “I want you to shout so loud, so that everyone who betrayed you, everyone who let you down, everybody who betrayed families like the Kate Steinle family … everybody who ignored your cries and pleas for help. I want you to shout so loud that it quivers the conference tables in Washington, D.C.”
A dramatic pause. A wag of the finger.
“Are you prepared, folks, to elect as president a man who will put America first, last, and always!” He too is shouting now, jabbing with his finger, bouncing in his knees, his face beatific with righteous anger. His eyes are finally smiling. “Are you prepared to elect Donald J. Trump as president of these United States! Are you prepared to take back your country!” The crowd is whistling, screaming. “Are you prepared for real change on behalf of America! God bless all of you, god bless this state, and God! Bless! The United! States! Of America! Thank you!”
And with that, Miller spins around on his heels, turning his back to the ecstatic crowd. He flashes a peace sign, and disappears into the darkness."
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