We all know that Hillary Clinton has been for racial justice since the beginning of the her campaign. She has used her rhetoric to excite people of many different races. She also has painted her opponent, Donald Trump a racist. Since Clinton has spoken a lot about racial justice, in turn, creates this image that Trump is not for racial justice. We’ve talked about the effect of her campaign rhetoric on racial justice, but not the counter result of the rhetoric.
This political cartoon is an extension of Clinton’s rhetoric on racial justice. During her campaign, she used her rhetoric to show that Donald Trump is a racist. Originally, Donald Trump was backed by the Ku Klux Klan and never denied their support. He also got support from their leader, David Duke. Later, he said that he never heard of them and tried to deny their support, because he realized it was not a good idea to be supported by an openly racist organization. This cartoon shows Donald Trump saying he never heard of their support, but the cartoon also shows a member of the KKK looking at Donald Trump in a way that shows Trump knew about the support. This leaves an enthymematic response to the audience. Since Trump is standing next to two racist figures, it depicts him as a racist as well.
Another response that came from the Media, was a skit done by Saturday Night Live. If you fast-forward to 5:22, the same type of rhetoric about Trump trying to deny KKK support is shown. This shows that Clinton’s campaign have effectively continue the narrative that Trump is not for racial justice, or enough to raise suspicion.
The rhetoric of Trump being involved with the Ku Klux Klan has allowed Hillary to make an effective campaign rhetoric on racial justice. It is easy to create the image that she is all in for racial change, when her opponent is perceived as a racist.
I completely agree with this article, and I wrote about a very similar idea in my article. Through this use of rhetoric and enthymemes she has constructed him as an ultimately evil figure. He is not longer just a bad man, but many citizens worst possible nightmare. He has been constructed into more a monster than anything else.
I think that when so many controversial figures and organizations come forward to support a candidate, it is both difficult for that candidate to denounce their support and super easy for the other candidate to attack because of it. Hillary was quite effective at that, and that is why trump is still being labeled a racist to this day by many people.