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Deconstructing American Elections

Deconstructing Election in America

Image result for elections
Mr. Dalton also used this picture!

In our two-party political system, most Americans believe that voting for a third party will essentially throw away their vote. As a result, most of the campaigning for an American election focuses on advancing either the Republican or Democratic party; this causes Americans to almost always vote Republican or Democratic and perpetuates the two-party system. The results of an American election almost always show that it is useless to vote for a third party which causes people to only consider voting Republican or Democratic.

Because the winning presidential candidate from the 2016 election did not win the popular vote, many Americans became dissatisfied with our election system and the electoral college. Most Americans voted democratic however, the electoral college mostly voted republican. The election was also a testament to increased political polarization between the two parties.

The two major candidates in the 2016 Presidential election were Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Donald Trump

Here is a campaign advertisement from Mr. Trump from YouTube\

This is a Trump-approved campaign ad so needless to say, it has a pro-Trump stance. Trump believes that there are many problems with our country and that in his efforts to fix them, he will "make America great again". He includes patriotic music in this ad to make himself seem heroic and most of the footage is from events that he spoke at; by always showing him around a large audience, he aims to develop an ethos appeal to credibility.

Trump delves into a few national issues that he wishes to improve including better care for veterans and improved health care (lmao) however, the only issue he repeatedly talks about is strengthening our border(s) by building a wall. Trump understood that many of his potential voters, and most Americans for that matter, care deeply about national security and are scared of domestic terrorism. By emphasizing this issue, Trump intended to appeal to this audience, which could have helped him garner votes.

Hillary Clinton

Here is a campaign advertisement made by Mrs. Clinton shown on Time Magazine.

I cannot tell whether this ad is more pro-Hillary or anti-Trump. It was made the day prior to the election and has a very urgent tone. In the ad, Hillary creates an ultimatum in which a voter could either do good, and vote for Hillary, or do bad, and vote for Trump. Hillary banks on people's desire to do good by appealing to their sense or morals (ethos appeal). Her rhetoric is flawed because it fails to recognize that good and bad are subjective, especially with respect to politics. Her rhetoric includes the appeal to emotions; she paints her potential victory as very happy and progressive and her potential defeat as dark and undesirable. Because this ad was released a day before the election, we know that Hillary created it because she was 1) nervous that Trump would win and 2) desperate to garner last-minute support. 

Comments

  1. Zane HovermaleNovember 14, 2017 at 11:34 AM

    I like your blog very easy to read and very informational

    ReplyDelete
  2. L14November 14, 2017 at 1:08 PM

    I really liked how you went into detail on the rhetorical devices that were used in the artifacts that you used. Great Job Gabe!

    ReplyDelete

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