How to Win an Election Without Answering Any Questions

lksadjfklDonald Trump’s power of his rhetoric comes in the form of an enthymeme. An enthymeme is simply giving an argument and letting the audience fill in the blanks with whatever they believe Trump is meaning to say. The problem with this rhetorical strategy is many people interpret Donald Trump very differently and that results in many people filling in the blanks with different things. This downfall is also what makes it genius. Donald Trump does not have to provide an answer for half of his policies because he lets his audience answer for him. For example, his slogan: “Make America Great Again!” When was America great? How did it become anything less than great? When will it become great again? These are all questions that go unanswered by Donald Trump himself. You know who does answer these questions? The audience. Anyone could have an answer to these questions and the most amazing part is no one can tell the audience they are wrong because there is no solid, definitive answer. It is the most genius rhetorically strategy of either campaign because it has hooked an entire population of voters by giving them more questions than answers. He employs this strategy again when he promises to “make America wealthy again.” He takes his slogan and spins it to regard trade, but again, like his slogan, he leaves an entire audience of people with unanswered questions that he assumes we should answer for ourselves. When was America not wealthy? When were we wealthy? Last time I checked, the United States of America had, for the last one hundred years, the largest GPD.

 

Donald Trump’s use of the enthymeme does not stop here. In a speech in Monessen, Pennsylvania he vowed to “never, ever sign bad trade deals” and to “put America first again!” Trump’s magical enthymeme word is “again” implying that at one point in history America was great, America was wealthy, and America was put first, but now it is not. Trump is a master at the enthymeme because he understands his audience far beyond Clinton does. He knows what his audience will think about what he says before he says it and this gives him the power to put blanks in his policies where he wants his audience to fill in. With this communication strategy he is able to reach numerous amounts of people by appealing to them without having to directly say what he means.

One thought on “How to Win an Election Without Answering Any Questions

  1. I agree, most of Trump’s claims made throughout the campaign have been using enthymemes. One of them major ones (as discussed in class), “I am a successful business man. America needs money. I will be good for America.” Or something along those lines. Although, Hillary is also strategically employing enthymemes; she has 30 years of political experience and thus is fit for office. Two candidates, multiple enthymemes and one tragic presidental election.

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