AMERICA’S QUANDARY— MASKING INJUSTICE: IDEOLOGICAL ANALYSES OF AMERICA’S MOVES TOWARDS ITS PROMISE | A PEDAGOGICAL PRIMER ON RHETORIC by RONALD JERRY WALKER Under the Direction of George Pullman, PhD, and Elizabeth Sanders Lopez, PhD ABSTRACT Rhetoric, persuasive discourse, and rhetorical analysis, art and science of rhetorical text scrutiny, are invaluable aspects of composition pedagogy. Rhetoric commands our world. This dissertation project manifests four features. First, it reveals America’s promise through rhetorical artifact texts. Second, the project presents an academic investigation—America’s moves towards its promise. Third, it recounts the continuing injustices suffered by women and peoples of color, all hidden behind (rhetorical) masks, that continue to plague America. And fourth, this collection altogether serves as a pedagogical primer on rhetoric. Founding documents and public monuments serve as a ruse that masks injustice and inequality. This is America’s quandary, a reality that unfortunately escapes journalistic focus. Masks enable the American hegemony of sexism, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, and classism to thrive. This nation’s affluent “founders” completely ignored and erased the vast majority of peoples co-inhabiting our boundless lands—millions of indigenous Native American nations; women, not mentioned anywhere among America’s founding documents; abducted African (forced) laborers commanded to toil generational lives, as chattel; and poor whites. Later immigrants, especially peoples of color, would also be denied their “liberty and justice for all.” Today, the USA is World Number One—in obesity, in opioid addiction, in female prison incarceration, in male prison incarceration, in military defense spending, in military weaponry (international spread), and in war (today Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Niger). And in international intrigue (arrogance). America’s quandary is our lack of universal healthcare, the antiquated Electoral College, the rising 1%, the shrinking middle class, the widening gap between America’s rich and poor, and our obsessive desire to police and command the world. This project interrogates rhetoric “to unmask and demystify” America’s rhetorical hegemony of disadvantage and inequality; while America faces a bleak future. We English teachers are First Responders for our culture. Our democratic republic must have—to survive—a committed populace of engaged citizens whose critical thinking, analytical reasoning, and civic responsibility can invigorate American culture. If We are successful, America will be successful; if We fail, America will fail. Perhaps if We could just make America better, all would work out. INDEX WORDS: Rhetorical analysis, Rhetorical devices, Critical thinking, Argument essa
Within the setting and context of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study uses Ernest Bormann’s Symbolic Convergence Theory (SCT) framework to analyze fantasy themes which emerged from the rhetoric of the American President, Joe Biden, regarding vaccinations. The main question of this study is why President Biden’s rhetorical vision either chained out and was accepted among the American public resulting in increased vaccination or failed to chain out resulting in Americans refusing to become vaccinated. To answer this question, a selection of artifacts consisting of examples of President Biden’s rhetoric are gathered, and using those artifacts, SCT fantasy themes are developed. Three SCT fantasies are delineated and explored to answer the central question of this study. The first fantasy theme which emerged from President Biden’s rhetoric is: “President Biden assumes the role of a sanctioning agent, portraying and positioning himself as a war time President who will lead America through one of its darkest hours.” The second fantasy which is developed in this study is: “President Biden encourages Americans to become heroes by partaking in the battle against COVID-19 by becoming vaccinated, while unvaccinated Americans are demonized as villains.” The third fantasy which emerged from President Biden’s rhetoric is: “President Biden portrayed contradicting narratives to the “official narrative” as existential threats to America and the current political order.” Using these three fantasies, this study then develops explanations why proponents of President Biden’s rhetorical vision accepted it, and why opponents of his vision rejected it
Indigenous feminist bloggers weave an intersectional, rhetorical story that lances the core of American popular culture and misinformed imaginations. The Native American women bloggers introduced in this essay are unknown to most non-Native Americans, most rhetoric scholars, and most feminists, but should be on our radar because of their refusal to be constrained by colonialist binaries, single rhetorical forms, or imposed boundedness to the margins. These Indigenous feminists practice in the digital space to reinforce and reclaim rhetorical sovereignty as an outcome for themselves and their communities. Once the weaving is complete, the resultant warmth of rhetorical sovereignty provides some protection from the cold colonial stories of erasure and absence
This article seeks to investigate Hillary Rodham Clinton�s 2016 campaign rhetoric for the U.S. President as found in her South Carolina Primary Victory Speech and Super Tuesday Victory Speech. The qualitative content analysis was used through Leanne�s concepts of rhetorical strategies to deconstruct the texts. It gave way to new analytical narratives to decipher the core meaning as expressed in the central ideas and the main ideas of the two speeches. In this way, access was easily made to studying the four components of Clinton�s campaign rhetoric. The article shows that both speeches share similar theme in the four components of the campaign rhetoric, spelling out consistently Clinton�s lines of thought and political goals. She succinctly spelled out her agenda to make America whole again; thus, providing opportunity, dignity and justice for every American. She frames her determination to break down barriers that drive the nation apart. She presents herself as a strong leader capable of advancing American economy that works for every America, breaking all barriers and restoring their common faith for a better America. She evokes hopes on the part of her prospective voters for their common better future and urges to realize more love and kindness in their lives, and anger against barriers that divide them apart
Bill Clinton was the United States of America’s (U.S.) 42nd President, and his rhetoric set the tone of U.S. political climate for years following his presidency. Due to the power that a president possesses, a president’s presence and statements are frequently analyzed. It is clear, however, that there is a lack of research completed on presidential rhetoric. Upon this realization, I reflected on my previous areas of research; one of those areas was the first term presidential rhetoric of Clinton. As a result, I decided that a rhetorical analysis of some of the major rhetoric that contributed to Clinton’s first presidential term would greatly benefit scholarly research on presidential rhetoric. This research considers Clinton’s announcement speech where he informed the public that he was running for the democratic nomination for president, speech after receiving the democratic nomination, first Inaugural Address, first State of the Union Address, and speech apologizing for radiation that the U.S. used during the Cold War. When considering each of the speeches, it is important to take into account that Clinton had speechwriters during his first presidential term; I was unable to discover to what extent Clinton was or was not involved in the writing process of his speeches
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