Farid Ghamsari
Dr. Stephanie Brown
English 306
9/15/2016
Rhetoric of Protest: “Make
America Great Again”
The slogan: “Make
America Great Again” has swept the United States as one of the most impassioned
and powerful campaign slogans in recent American history. The current
Presidential Nominee for the Republican Party, Donald Trump, has been using
this slogan to amass feelings of distrust and discontent towards the US
Democratic Party and its leadership which has held the seat of the Presidency
for the past eight years. During this time, the United States has seen a
significant amount of turmoil including, but not limited, to the Great
Recession, the rise of ISIS, and an increasing number of mass shootings and
terrorist attacks inside US borders. With so many devastating tragedies, it is
easy to see how distress and debate over the effectiveness of the United States
leadership could be growing amongst US citizens. In particular, those who
support the conservative ideals of the Republican Party have felt that their
desires have been largely disregarded by the liberals within the Democratic
Party.
The slogan’s
intended audience is all United States voters, but also principally these individuals
who have felt unrepresented by Democratic Party and who feel that the current
leadership has failed in protecting and strengthening the country. It embodies
the collective identities of those who feel animosity towards this leadership
and believe that the state of the US has been in decline over the past two
presidential terms. Immediately following the 2012 presidential election of
Barack Obama, Donald Trump trademarked the slogan and began preparing for his 2016
presidential campaign (Martosko). Its
purpose is to have voters support Donald Trump in the election by proclaiming
that he will in fact “Make America Great Again”. More specifically, it uses a
significant amount of pathos it is meant to draw upon the existing strong
negative emotions towards the current liberal leadership and lead its audience
to believe that the US is no longer what it used to be due to the leadership.
It simultaneously employs ethos to invite its audience to believe that Donald
Trump is both capable and necessary to put the US on the path to greatness once
again.
One reason “Make
America Great Again” is such a powerful slogan is because of the emotions it
elicits from its audience. It makes an appeal to pathos by having its audience
believe that America is has declined from its previous state. This is, for
obvious reasons, a painful notion for many Americans to accept. The slogan
feeds upon and fans the flames of insecurity and distrust for liberal
leadership. Many blame the recent terrorist attacks in the United States on the
liberal policies of allowing Syrian refugees to enter. While there is no evidence
to support this claim, President Barack Obama and the rest of the Democratic
Party are under scrutiny and attack from the Republican party for this decision
(Saletan). These attacks alone have broken American’s sense of security in the
US. The decision to continue allowing refugees to enter even after the attacks
has led many Americans to question the Democratic Party’s priorities: Is it the
security of American citizens or the security of strangers overseas? Another
crisis which has ailed Barack Obama’s presidency is the economy after the Great
Recession. At its height, millions of American’s lost their jobs and their
homes. US citizens who voted for Obama believed he had a plan for the economy
to make a strong recovery. While many liberal proponents will point out that
the economy has been in steady rise during President Obama’s two terms, it has
been the slowest and weakest economic recovery since the Great Depression
(Tracinski). Millions of Americans are still unemployed and people who used to
be managers or teachers now work as cashiers. American citizens have lost their
faith in both the Democratic Party’s ideals and their efficacy as leaders. To
add a final nail in the coffin, Hilary Clinton, the Democratic Party’s current
nominee running against Donald Trump has been investigated by the FBI over
improper use of a private email server during her time as Secretary of State
four years ago. During the investigation, there was serious debate as to
whether her use had been criminal. The results of the investigation were that
her use had not been intentionally criminal but had been “extremely careless”
(Landler). Many Americans feel that Clinton is unfit to be President and cannot
be trusted, hitting her with nicknames such as the now ubiquitous “Crooked
Hillary”. It is clear how the slogan, “Make America Great Again” can hit home
for so many Americans. It brings forth all of the underlying resentment
citizens have towards the way the country has been run by the Democratic Party.
The slogan characterizes the insecurity and distrust people feel towards the
liberal leadership due to its many failures and pitfalls over the past several
years. “Make American Great Again” employs pathos by tapping into these
emotions. Intensifying them in order to have voters turn against the Democratic
Party, who’s motives and efficacy can no longer be trusted, to a man whose can
be, Donald Trump.
While pathos is
the major rhetorical strategy at play here, the slogan also uses ethos to sway
its audience towards voting for Donald Trump. The slogan was originally used and
popularized by Ronald Raegan in his 1979 Presidential Campaign (Martosko).
Ronald Raegan is commonly held as one of the greatest political leaders in
recent American history. Many current conservative ideals are call backs to
Raegan’s presidential policies such as “Raeganism” and "Raeganomics”. By
using the same slogan as Ronald Raegan, Donald Trump gains the authority of his
predecessor in order to sway his crowd. Ronald Raegan was also a president who
dealt with a damaged economy, yet unlike the liberals of today, he was able to
bring an exceptionally strong and swift recovery (Heubusch). If Ronald Raegan
were around today, liberal and conservative voters alike would undoubtedly
trust him to fix the economy once more, and by using his slogan, Donald Trump
can garner the same sort of trust and confidence from his voters.
Donald Trump’s
campaign slogan “Make America Great Again”, is influential for a number of
reasons. The slogan works by aiming the dissatisfaction of many Americans with
the state of the nation towards the Democratic party and its leadership. It
employs pathos to nurture American insecurity towards the several past years of
leadership and has them believe that they have been misled to an America which
is no longer great. By doing so, the slogan paints Donald Trump’s competitor as
an untrustworthy candidate who is unfit to be president. The slogan also
employs ethos by drawing a line between Donald Trump and one of the most trusted
conservative leaders in recent history, Ronald Raegan. By doing so, Trump
attracts the same authority that Raegan’s name commands. The rhetoric has been
incredibly affective in achieving its purpose. Its ubiquitous presence in the
US media is a credit to how significant the slogan has become. It has made
appearances on hats and other articles of clothing and has become synonymous
with Donald Trump support. It has been decisively effective in making voters
believe that America is no longer great, and that Donald Trump is the only
candidate who can make it great once more.
Works
Cited:
Martosko, Us Political Editor For Dailymail.com, David.
"EXCLUSIVE: Trump Trademarked Slogan 'Make America Great Again' Just DAYS
after the 2012 Election and Says Ted Cruz Has Agreed Not to Use It Again after
Scott Walker Booms It TWICE in Speech." Mail Online. Associated
Newspapers, 2015. Web. 02 Sept. 2016.
Saletan, William. “The New
Republican Standard: Guilty Until Proven Christian.” Slate Magazine.
N.p., 2015. Web. 15 Sept. 2016
Tracinski. “10 Ways Obama Has Failed as President.” The Federalist. N.p., 2014. Web. 15
Sept. 2016.
Landler, Mark. “Hillary Clinton’s 15,000 New Emails to Get
Timetable for Release.” The New York
Times. The New York Times, 2016. Web. 15 Sept. 2016
Heubusch,
John. “Ronald Raegan’s Enduring Economic Legacy.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 15 Sept. 2016
I think that your argument is well made, however there are a few places where it would be good to elaborate to improve your clarity. You’ve definitely shown that you know what the context of the slogan is, and you do a great job of conveying that, and you take into account that your audience likely knows the context as well. However, your analysis of the audience and identity the slogan represents is less clear. It would definitely help you to connect the background to the identity better, instead of treating them as completely separate. How has the context given rise to the identity and audience? You spend a lot of your argument on pathos covering this, when it might be more effective to include it in the identity section. That way, you can more clearly analyze the appeal to pathos towards the audience without having to cover how a set of contexts led to the formation of the audience and identity in the middle of your argument.
ReplyDeleteYou might also want to consider that the audience may include nations outside of the United States as well, potentially sending a message to foreign entities, or even that the slogan may identify Trump more than the people who identify with him who may be part of his audience. Other than this organizational issue and possibility to expand, I think your purpose is well-supported by your context, audience, and identity, however you do not include an assessment of whether or not its purpose has been achieved or what it would take to say that it has been.
Overall, I’d say that your argument for pathos may be better structured if you did what I suggested above. Your ethos argument is good, but I would say to be careful of how you portray Reagan’s economics, as there were good and bad things about them. You can definitely say that people think Reagan’s economic policies were great and so the appeal works, but I’d be cautious to say Reaganomics was all good. On the whole, your argument works, and if you were able to incorporate these edits I think it would be better.
Hey Farid,
ReplyDeleteFirst I want to say I agree with Colin on the strength of your essay. You give great support in establishing the context of the slogan and the intended audience. Separating the intended audience into the two groups "all United States voters" and "principally these individuals who have felt unrepresented by Democratic Party..." strengthens your paper because it establishes that while there are many people who the slogans applies, there is a very specific audience (the unrepresented) it is attempting to influence.
With that I have to say I disagree with Colin over you addressing potential audiences outside the United State. While that would be an interesting discussion, for the scope of your paper, it seems a little irrelevant. If the purpose of the slogan is to influence sway its audience towards voting for Donald Trump, than audiences outside of the voter pool isn’t important for the paper.
Something you might think about adding to the paper is a section on logos. I found your explanations of the use of pathos and ethos to be well thought out, but I feel like there is room for an argument about logos. While “Make America Great Again” certainly relies on the emotional and ethical responses of the audience, there is a logical aspect to it as well. If the audience is not being properly represented by its current party, than logically, they would move on to a party that holds their interests.
I think your essay is pretty clear and the connections between the evidence and claims are clearly explained, but I did get caught up in a section in the third paragraph of your essay. The part about Clinton, I understand the point you are trying to make, but I get lost in your explanation. I think if you work on the clarity of wording in this particular part of the essay, it will improve the essay overall.
Overall I think you essay just needs some “spot treatment” and can be revised on a local level. Your organization is strong and easy to follow and you support you claims wells. I think if you add in a section on logos and work on your prose you will be left with a very strong paper.
Hi Farid,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading more about this popular campaign slogan. To start off, I agree with Colin regarding your description of the audience. I think your paper would be stronger if you talked about how the background of the turmoil the United States has experienced has given rise to this audience that feels underrepresented by the Democratic Party. Connecting these two ideas early on in your paper would be a great approach and would show more in-depth analysis of why the slogan resonates with its intended audience so well. I do like how you introduce pathos and ethos in your second paragraph before you delve more deeply into them. I agree with Zoe that I do not think it is necessary to address audiences Trump may have beyond the United States. Though this would be interesting to explore, I think with the limited space you have to make your argument, it would detract from your goal of discussing the population of America that feels wronged by the Democratic Party, which is the main audience of this slogan as you have said.
I think the detail you put into your pathos section was great, and by discussing various instances that have occurred in the Obama administration, I was better convinced with how pathos was utilized in this slogan. I think your transition into discussing Hillary Clinton could be improved, instead of jumping straight from Obama to Clinton. I know Zoe discussed how she was confused by the clarity of this paragraph, and I agree. I think it was important to include Clinton in your argument because it shows not only the distrust people have developed over the past eight years with Obama, but also how the distrust is continuing in this election. I also agree with Zoe that you should discuss logos to some extent in your paper, as people are (sometimes) using logic when they are supporting Trump by thinking, if the Democratic Party has been involved in corruption, then I should support the opposite party.
Overall, I was persuaded by your account of the slogan’s purpose and context. The evidence you chose to include was appropriate and shed light on the reasons why people support Trump. You have great topic sentences that clearly show where your paragraph is headed. Your paper does not require any major changes, except explaining logos, and just requires some minor organizational changes, as both Colin and Zoe said.
Things to Edit:
ReplyDelete-Small edits to improve clarity
-Add potential pathos of Nostalgia in the slogan
-Fluidity from Obama to Clinton
-Closer ties of Context to current purpose of slogan