Rhetorical Analysis Of Barbara Jordan's Impeach President Nixon

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After the Watergate Scandal in 1972, the House Judiciary Committee needed to decide whether or not to start the process of impeaching President Nixon. As a new member of the committee, it was Barbara Jordan’s job to convince everyone else to vote for the impeachment of Nixon. In Jordan’s speech, pathos is effectively used to persuade the House Judiciary Committee to impeach President Nixon. Through the use of rhetorical questions, repetition, first person pronouns, and dramatic imagery Jordan impacts her audience’s opinion on the impeachment of Nixon. Jordan first utilizes pathos to relate to her audience. “I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton left me out by mistake… I have finally been included in “We, the people.” Jordan begins her speech with an extremely personal statement. She tells her audience that she, as an African American woman, felt excluded when the preamble was first written. This forces her audience to feel sympathy for her; …show more content…

She says, “which must guide our deliberations, guide our debate, and guide our decision.” Jordan is attempting to guide her primary audience through the process of impeachment. This is not forceful or a law, just guidance. She is letting her audience make the decision, not forcing them to impeach Nixon. She is also appealing to the audience’s patriotism toward the constitution. She knows they feel strongly about what the constitution says, and that it should be followed. Jordan uses repetition again when she states, “a President is impeachable if he attempts to subvert the Constitution.” This quote is used at the beginning and the end of a paragraph. Jordan states the quote, Nixon’s involvement in the scandal, and then she states the quote again at the end of the paragraph. She does this for two reasons- emphasis and to make a clear connection between Nixon’s involvement in the scandal and the terms of

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