As the presidential
election nears, every candidate is trying to sell themselves in these last crucial
days. Recently, Hilary Clinton, a prominent presidential candidate, wrote an
op-ed titled “What I have in common with Utah leaders” for Deseret News. In my opinion,
I think her op-ed piece is quite persuasive to her readers. To thoroughly
analyze it, I will be using Kenneth Burke’s Dramatism
to examine her op-ed.
In Clinton’s op-ed
piece, she is trying to win over Utah’s vote since it is a Republican state and
she is a Democrat. However, the agency that she uses to achieve her purpose is
quite intriguing. She mentions both distinguished Latter-Day Saint members or leaders
and history of the Mormon church. In fact, Hilary mostly puts a spotlight on
these people by quoting what they said. For an example, “Listen to Mitt Romney,
who said Trump “fired before aiming” when decided a blanket religious ban was a
solution to the threat of terrorism.” Romney is a distinguished member of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints, and he was the Republican candidate
for the presidential election back in 2012. Since he is so well-known and respected,
Clinton cited him because the LDS members will listen to him, even if they do
not listen to her. Other than Romney, she quotes Senator Larry Pressler who
became a LDS member a year ago and gave a lecture series at Brigham Young
University. In his statement, he said that “Trump’s plan reminded him of the
Missouri Governor who singled out Mormons in his extermination order of 1838.”
Additionally, she mentions significant Latter-Day Saint church leaders like Sister
Rosemary Wixom, Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Gordon Hinckley, and Thomas
Monson. Even though she doesn’t reference it directly, Hilary Clinton utilizes
the values of The Family: A Proclamation
to the World issued by the church. For instance, she says phrases like “keep
kids and parents together” and “every child can reach his or her God-given
potential.” She is definitely trying her best to appeal to the Mormon community
in Utah.
If the scene was
different, would Hilary still say the things she did in her op-ed on Deseret News? The answer would be no. If
the scene switched to the Democratic National Convention, her talk will be
completely changed and she would employ a different kind of agency. Overall,
her op-ed piece was quite persuasive to the Mormon readers because of
the rhetorical techniques that she applied.
Check out these other rhetorical blogs!:
I did my post on the Donald Trump article and I was surprised that the articles were so different from each other. I feel they both got there points across to the people. It is great how different these articles are. Both focused on two different types of people as Trump focused on middle class citizens and Clinton on people involved with the LDS faith.
ReplyDeleteBesides all the legal disputes and lies that surround her persona, Hillary Clinton's main issue in connecting with the American people is her blatant pandering. This is a perfect example of how far she takes her efforts to appeal to her audiences. She abuses the stereotypes and generalizations applied to regions and peoples.
ReplyDeleteIn one of her radio interviews, Clinton went as far as to claim that she always carries hot sauce in her purse in a desperate and ridiculous attempt to win over the respect of black population in New york. ( http://dailycaller.com/2016/04/18/hillary-clinton-tells-black-radio-host-she-carries-hot-sauce-in-her-purse/ )
To me, her attempts to pander to a Mormon audience fall as flat as her supposed adoration of hot sauce.