Ben Shapiro's Burkean Model Summary

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Ben Shapiro recently wrote a column to give his thoughts and opinions on the “characterless people ... running for office more and more” to his already established supporters. Shapiro’s purpose of the essay is to convince those on his side, that those who support the “delegate model” are degenerates and that the “Burkean model” is superior. He achieves this by constantly berating the opposing side with his use of the syntactical element priming, negative diction, and a bipolar tone. At the beginning, Shapiro proposes a question about what role representatives should play in the government, and in his questioning develops his side to the reader. “Were representatives supposed to act as simple proxies for their constituents? Or were they supposed to exercise independent judgment?” Shapiro uses the word “simple” to …show more content…

Next he states a fact, “history has shown that bad men in positions of power ... tend to abuse power,” and brings that around to his point that “we must measure our candidates for character.” This helps solidify what he has alluded to throughout the column, that characterless representatives are odious and immoral. As his coda, Shapiro quotes John Adams prayer regarding the White House: “May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof,” and that John “didn’t pray that they agree with him on tariffs,” so why should we pray about policy when the maker is morally

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