Tag: Rhetoric

Head Down Through The Finish Line

In an appearance this past Sunday at a Baptist Church in North Carolina, Clinton spoke amongst a predominately black audience. Clinton was surrounded by five black women who have lost their children to gun violence or altercations with police. Clinton has made it a priority of hers’ to address predominately black audiences throughout the rest of her campaign down the home stretch. In this appearance Sunday, she jokingly said “love thy neighbor as you love thy self” and went on to mention that it can be hard in the background of politics. This was a subliminal shot at Trump, which was very successful at her appearance after you could hear the crowd begin to engage and laugh. Clinton further went on to take shots at Trump during conversation about systematic racism, she said “my opponent has been involved with that and much more.” Lastly, Clinton concludes with “I have stood next to him for four and half hours through all three debates, to just further prove that I have the stamina.”

In this last appearance we see that Clinton is very interested in gaining the black vote, and made it her priority moving forward. Once again, Clinton is using “intend to gain an audience” being the black voters which is a pivotal point in winning this election. I found that Clinton did a fairly good job of putting herself way above Trump at this rally through reading the transcript. Clinton was able to successfully take shots at Trump, through the rhetoric she used she was able to make it subliminal and not to controversial. However my favorite quote is when she stated she has the stamina. Clinton used the “stamina” claim to take another shot at Trump, thus trying to prove through the fact that she was able to stand next to him for hours at a time that she was in good health. Overall thought this was a beneficial outing for Clinton, and only gave her more momentum for the black vote.

Third Presidential Debate: Use of Storytelling, Emotions, and Framing with The 2ndAmendment

On Wednesday October 20 in Las Vegas Nevada, the third presidential debate of 2016 took place. The past two time Hillary and Donald, heated arguments dominated the conversations. This time was no different.

Moderator, Chris Wallace, started the candidates on some controversial topics, such as The Supreme Court and The Constitution.

Clinton had the stage first, saying she wants a supreme court that will stand up for women’s rights and the LBGT community, and stand against Citizen’s United.

Next, Trump took an opportunity to pivot away from matters, such as women’s rights, that make him look unpresidential, to talk about the 2nd Amendment.

“We need a Supreme Court that in my opinion is going to uphold the second amendment and all amendments, but the second amendment which is under absolute siege.”

This began the conversation (which was surprisingly tame).

Clinton rebutted saying,

“I understand and respect the tradition of gun ownership that goes back to the founding of our country, but I also believe that there can be and must be reasonable regulation.”

Each candidate made their stance, but how did they do it?

Clinton talked about gun control through storytelling and appealed to the emotions of her audience. Similar to the My Mom political ad on gun violence. She began her statement by saying, “I lived in Arkansas for 18 wonderful years.” This is very typical of a fairytale which often begins with A long time ago in a land far far away.

She also appeals to emotions later after Wallace mentions the Heller Decision. She says, “Well, I was upset because unfortunately, dozens of toddlers injure themselves, even kill people with guns because unfortunately, not everyone who has loaded guns in their homes takes appropriate precautions.” Here Clinton identifies her anger that will resonate with others who felt upset about the court’s decision. She then allows for others to understand her emotion with the information on toddlers.

What do you think? How do you think that Trump’s argument stood up to Clinton’s?

Click here to see a full transcript of the debate.

Click here to watch the debate.

FINISH THE DRILL

In the upcoming debate, Clinton will be looking to solidify the nation’s vote. In doing so, Clinton will be focusing hard on locking in the votes of minorities and immigrants who are directly affected by racial injustice. During this debate I expect Clinton to lay out the plan she has to bring about racial equality in all aspects of life in this country, she needs to be very specific and straight to the point to give the American people belief in her and what direction she is going to head upon entering the presidential office. Right now, Clinton has tons of momentum heading into the last debate and needs to keep rolling to solidify her spot as the nation’s top presidential nominee.

There are two pieces of presidential debate that Clinton will be honing in on. They are “stated proposition” being racial injustice, and “intent to gain the attention of an audience” by gaining the attention of all people directly affected by the racial injustices that take place in this country. Clinton has pulled away substantially in the last two debates, as they say “if it isn’t broke don’t fix it”. Clinton needs to continue to hammer down the topics she has been which include racial injustice and much more.

Presidential debate predictions: What to expect from Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump

Clinton stated in the last debate that Trump owed an apology to America for the alienation and verbal abuse of minority groups which has divided America which he was apart of. This accusation further separated herself from Trump and has helped her gain momentum with the minority and immigrant vote. I look for her to continue with these tactics to solidify her vote with the people directly affected with racial injustices.

Political Campaign Advertisements: Framing of Hillary Clinton in regards to Gun Control

Although the 2016 presidential campaign differs from traditional campaigns, one thing remains constant, the effect political ads have on voter decisions.

Just like artists frame their pieces, campaigns aim to frame candidates. Rhetorical framing happens when an object, situation, or person has been described in a way that leads the audience to believe a certain way. In this campaign, Trump frames Clinton as untrustworthy, hypocritical, untransformative, and weak. While she tries to frame herself as nurturing, knowledgeable, relatable, and strong.

Nurturing, Protective Mother

Hillary Clinton informs her audience of her stance through the use of positive, story-telling ads. In one ad title My Mom, the daughter of a victim of the Sandy Hook Shooting describes the loss of her mother, the principle of the school. It starts with wedding pictures and the daughter telling the story of planning her wedding with her mother. Scenes of ambulance lights and a news article covering the shooting appear on screen. Next the daughter says,

“No one is fighting harder to reform our gun laws than Hillary Clinton”

The narration continues with the daughter stating that Clinton “reminds me of my mother”.

In this ad, Clinton uses testimonial to reach her target audience of younger, college educated women. Hillary frames herself as a loving caring motherly figure. This ad extols Hillary virtues through the use of narrative and story-telling.

Hypocrite Hillary

While Clinton frames herself as protective and nurturing in her gun control political ads, Trump attacks her practices during his speeches.

 

Because harsh backlash happened after Trump’s comment, “2nd Amendment people” should “take care” of Hillary, the NRA, The National Rifle Association, decided that they should intervene and distribute an attack ad instead of doing something more extreme (which could have been implied with Trump’s controversial quote).

In this particular ad, the NRA focuses on framing Hillary as a “hypocrite”. The ad starts with black SUVs escorted by police vehicles pulling up to a private jet. Hillary steps out of the SUV and armed guard walk her to the plane. The ad says that Hillary “tours on private jets protected by guards for thirty years, but she doesn’t believe in your right to keep a gun at home for self defense”. Because Trump did not attach his approval, this ad has the ability to attack Clinton as hard as it wants. PACs do not abide by the same rules as candidates. In fact, most attack ads which occur during a normal political campaign are paid for and distributed by PACs.

What does framing mean for the election?

With citizens already heading to the polls for early voting to elect the next president, it is important to understand how framing effects their decisions. For those who watch NRA’s ad, they could see Hillary as a hypocrite or untrustworthy. For those who watched the My Mom ad, they could see Hillary as someone who will nurture The United States of America back to health after the gun violence occurring across the country.

Accountability Check

In the past debate, Clinton was able to show the nation that Trump needs to be held accountable for his actions. Clinton spoke about Trump bashing a federal judge who was born in Indiana whose parents were “Mexican” therefore he could not be trusted. This is another example of Clinton making sure that the nation does not see this behavior as normal and acceptable.

In another instance, Clinton spoke about how Trump never apologized to the current POTUS for calling him a non-american because he was under the impression that Obama was not born in the U.S. Clinton deemed that a racist lie in the last debate, and that Trump needed to apologize to not only the POTUS but the country of America as well. Clinton finished these remarks by stating that Trump once again needed to be held accountable for his racist remarks and actions. Clinton was able to separate herself in this past debate when it comes to a racial standpoint because of these statements against Trump.

Clinton used “confrontation” one of the six elements of debating to bring public attention and focus on to his actions, and she was able to publicly condemn him for his racial remarks. While America was watching this most definitely helped her ethos as a defender and as the candidate that cares and will fight for racial justice in America. Personally, I found her remarks to be very beneficial to her campaign in my eyes because of the fact that Trump did not try to defend himself on the accusations because he realized that his actions were being watched and he was being held accountable and the whole nation now sees him as a different person than they may have before this second debate.

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Hillary Clinton “Wants You!”… But Does She Know You?

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Potential Impact of Millennial Voters:

How important is it to resonate with this election’s bracket of millennial voters? According to PewResearchCenter, “ As of July, an estimated 126 million Millennial and Gen X adults were eligible to vote (56% of eligible voters), compared with only 98 million Boomers and other adults from prior generations, or 44% of the voting-eligible population.” With younger voters comprising a majority of the potential voting population, it would seem of paramount interest to both candidates in question.

 

Are Clinton’s Issues resonating with Millennials?

After the “Feel the Bern” campaign sputtered and finally (though resentfully) endorsed Mrs. Clinton, many believed free college education would continue to be a major plank that the Presidential hopeful could preach upon. However, myriads of young voters are beginning to grasp the financial burden that comes with no tuition. In the words of George Washington student Chioma Iheoma “…we know it’s not really sustainable. We’re going to have to pay taxes. We don’t want to pay for that.” According to Breana Ross, president of the United States Student Association, more pertinent issues include:

With Election Day looming, Hillary would be wise to reign in on issues that evoke a stronger emotional trigger for young voters.

 

Clinton’s Fluctuating Numbers: A Cause for Concern?

Hillary’s failure to grasp and hold onto millennial voters manifests itself in numerous polls:

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Even though Trump has seen very little jump in undecided young voters, Third Party candidates are beginning to make headway; most noticeably a thirteen point surge from Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson. While neither candidate is a serious contender for the Oval Office, rising support late in election season shows a wave of discontent for both Presidential hopefuls.

 

Brief Ending Thoughts/Conclusions

I do not believe that a lower turnout of young voters for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be detrimental to her campaign, as long as they are not usurped by Donald Trump. As alluded to in class, middle age and undecided white women seem to be a predominant factor in this year’s election. Nevertheless, a drop of youth support for both candidates depicts a political climate that is all but at ease with our current representatives.