Rhetorical Analysis Of Hillary Clinton's Speech

When examined using a Blackean and Aristotelian framing, the campaign announcement speech of Hillary Clinton reveals significant ideological undertones and persuasive discursive strategies which figure the audience to be “American”. Hillary Clinton clearly reveals her ideology in her speech as she puts her political beliefs on display for the audience to see while simultaneously instilling and reinforcing already existing ideological blinders held by the audience as she makes use of persuasive definitions in regards to what it means to be American and who is American. Furthermore, Hillary Clinton utilizes Aristotelian persuasive strategies to persuade the audience such as ethos and pathos. Before engaging in an analysis of the speech itself,

As previously stated, Franklin Roosevelt was and is the grandfather of the Democratic Party. In fact, one may say that Franklin Roosevelt is to Democrats as Ronald Reagan is to Republicans. Not only is Roosevelt idolized in Democratic history for his overall presidency and leadership of this country, but also for championing civil liberties and workers’ rights. Given this information and the fact that Hillary Clinton herself bases her own campaign on those issues as well, it is clear why she chose to host her announcement for candidacy in the 2016 presidential election in a place that is dedicated to someone who paved the way for her to be where she is now. Why host it outdoors though? The answer is simple; there is “absolutely no ceiling.” Hillary Clinton here alludes to the “glass ceiling” or the latent, steadfast barrier that has kept women from advancing up the corporate ladder despite having all the qualifications need to advance to a high position. The utilization of location is done in such a way that Hillary Clinton does and references in her speech lays the ideological foundation that Hillary Clinton builds the rest of her speech upon with the goal being that the audience will desire to become part of this