Length: 940 words (3.4 pages)
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Vote for Senator John Kerry


With this being an election year, the political speeches are to a max. All of the political candidates are using speeches and commercials to try and persuade American to put their trust in them by voting for them and not their opponent. Senator John Kerry has been using the rhetorical appeals in all of the speeches he has been giving, ever since the primary. At the 2004 National Democratic Convention, Kerry spoke with such passion, talked about his reputation, and gave proof to what he was speaking about. Kerry gave a plan for the country, a plan of what will happen if he is elected the President. He spoke of things that went on during the past four years that should have not happened, or should have been handled differently. Kerry sold himself to the country in order to get the votes that are needed in the up coming election on November 2.

With the speech Senator John Kerry gave at the 2004 National Democratic Convention, he knew who is audience and knew how to appeal to them. His audience was the citizens of the United States of America, and not just the Democrats. Kerry assumed that the audience wanted a change from the way the current president is running the country. Kerry used the assumptions throughout his speech, though they are not just about the President, he also uses them about just how things are being ran in the country, talked about how there needs to be a change.

?My fellow Americans: we are here tonight united in one simple purpose: to make America stronger at home and respected in world.? The main point of the speech was laid out in the very first line. Though the speech had a few sub points such as: ?elections are about choices,? ?America can do better,? and ?help is on the way.? With these points, he was selling himself, telling the country what can happen if they would vote for him.

In order for Kerry to get his points across to the audience, the flow of his speech was very important. Not only was he talking about the issues that Americans care about, but he started out by giving more background information about himself. This way the audience got to know him as a person and not just a politician.

He did not just talk about himself. He talked about the issues that most Americans care about. He talked about: The war in Iraq and on terrorism, the military, family values, Social Security, jobs, the economy, taxes, health insurance, education, and energy independence. The reason Kerry spoke about these issues is because these are the things that are lying on most American?s hearts. People are concerned about what will happen in the future with these issues, and Kerry wanted to give them his plan for what was to come. It went back to the main point in the first paragraph, ?to make America stronger at home and respected in the world.?

Kerry showed a lot of passion in his speech. He showed that he cared, that he was human, and that he wanted to do this for the country and not for himself. Kerry got to a level that people would relate too, and used their emotions to get his point across. He spoke about his parents ?They went to their rest in the last few years, but their example, their inspiration, their gift of open eyes, open mind, and endless world are bigger and more lasting than any words.? By saying this, Kerry played with the audience?s emotions, with pathos. ?That flag doesn?t belong to any president. It doesn?t belong to any ideology and it doesn?t belong to any political party. It belongs to all the American people.? The flag is something that all Americans hold dear to their hearts, a symbol of our freedom. By talking about the flag, Kerry again is using Pathos, to open the hearts of the Americans.

Credibility is a big deal in the election this year. By Kerry saying ?I fought for victim?s rights and made prosecuting violence against women a priority. When I came to the Senate, I broke with many in my own party to vote for a balanced budget, because I thought it was the right thing to do. I fought to put a 100,000 cops on the street.? Kerry is talking about his own credibility, which happens to be good. He knows that when people look to see who they are going to vote for in an election, they look at their past, to see not only what they did, but to see what they have to offer if they become in office.

The logic that Kerry used in his speech appealed to people in a different way. It was something that he could not make up, but were actual facts that he used. ?Since 2000, four million people have lost their health insurance. Millions more are struggling to afford it.? Kerry used facts like that to show the country things that have happened since President Bush has been in office.

The purpose of the essay was to persuade voter to vote for Senator John Kerry in the upcoming election. Kerry knew who his audience was and he knew what he had to say to get a positive effect from them. With the passionate tone, the light humor spread out through out the speech and most importantly the all of the rhetorical appeals the speech did what it was supposed to do, it persuaded some voters to say they will vote Kerry in the upcoming election.