Persuading With Political Speeches Some

Persuading With Political Speeches

Some emotive words and euphemisms have consistently reappeared within these speeches. Words like "war," "attack," "danger," "God," "defend," "freedom," and "victory" were very much evoked within all five speeches. These words were chosen because they could emotionally incite the audience into favoring war against its aggressors; the word "God" was particularly used to justify the cause of war.

Euphemisms like "heavy losses" and "civilian casualties" are employed by their British speakers Churchill and Blair to downplay the images their audiences might otherwise conjure up of innocent lives being destroyed. Both Bush and Blair use the euphemism "way of life" to make their audiences think that a clash of civilizations is about to take place; this means that it's not just a violent group of individuals that we are defending against but also the alien ideology that they carry.

The themes that keep being reiterated within all these speeches are the notions of fighting back against aggression and of supporting the right cause. The theme of fighting back was chosen so that audiences would be made aware of the importance behind defending oneself against a major enemy attack. This theme was also meant to enforce the idea that cowering in fear and hopelessness after an attack would only embolden the enemy. The theme of supporting a righteous cause was meant to erase the audiences' fear that what they were about to embark upon may not actually be right.

In my opinion the emotive words and euphemisms have not distorted the events or issues in any of the speeches because they were meant to clearly and forcefully show their audiences that war was the only solution for the injustice they incurred at the hands of the enemy. To me the most persuasive speech was given by Roosevelt because it illustrated the gravity of the decision America faced after suddenly being attacked by an enemy state. The next most persuasive speech was given by Churchill because it showed the British that they needed to quickly respond to the oncoming onslaught by an enemy state. The third most persuasive speech was given by Bush because it clearly explained who attacked America on 9/11 and why, and it explained that this enemy's intentions involved global dominance therefore it had to be stopped. The fourth most persuasive speech was given by Bin Laden because it laid out Muslim grievances and alleged hypocrisy of the West, which he felt had to be fought against. The least persuasive speech was given by Blair because it did not give a clear enough reason why exactly he was so intimately involving his nation into another one's affairs.