Cammie Denton
Dr. Foster
WR 122
April 17, 2016
Rhetorical Analysis of Barack Obama’s Remarks on Economic Mobility
On December 4th, 2013 Barack Obama spoke on the subject of income inequality and upward mobility. This speech was delivered to, and hosted by, the Center for American Progress (CAP). The president uses striking language to appeal to the emotion and logic of the audience. Obama executes his appeals in a variety of ways with the express purpose of painting the issue of growing inequality and decreased upward mobility as the “defining challenge of our time.” President Obama describes these issues as what drives everything he does as POTUS. Obama’s speech was quite intellectual and technical, peppered in detail with the numbers and statistics of current social and economic inequalities, appealing to logos. While he builds his argument based on these substantial facts, the overall feeling of his language is that of compassion. This compassion seems to drive his purpose and thus emotionally connecting to his audience. Further, Obama appeals to ethos during his speech as he outlines how current market-caused inequalities are threatening everything that makes America great. Obama masterfully balances his passionate language with solid facts and straight-forward logic in this effectively persuasive speech.
Before expanding upon the specifics of the rhetorical methods utilized by the president in this speech, I think it is important to highlight that the audience (CAP) is a public policy research and advocacy group that labels themselves as bold progressives who believe that “America should be a land of boundless opportunity, where people can climb the ladder of economic mobility,” as stated from their website (www.americanprogress.org). This is important to understand, as the issue of economic inequality is one that invokes great polarization and hostility between the Democratic and Republican parties. With this specific audience, President Obama was very much preaching to the choir and I firmly believe that if this speech was delivered to a mixed audience or a more conservative audience, the content and delivery of the speech would be decidedly different.
For the 1st half of this nearly 7,000-word speech, the president comes across as a researcher for CAP, spouting specific facts that detail decades of the economic and social trends leading to the current economic struggles that American’s face. This was interesting to me, as I feel Obama is known to be a persuasive speaker mainly due to his distinctive abilities to connect with people using vivid sensory language to invoke a sense of unity and hope. While this speech did not neglect the soft stuff, Obama also leaped pretty deeply into hard facts and specifics. This included statistics citing income disparity between race, sex, and class; a verbal sketch of the economic trajectory since the post-war era; and research illustrating the effects of inequality and upward mobility on political, social, personal, and professional relationships.
One example of powerful logical composition is Obama’s use of factual evidence to paint a story of distinct contrast of modern-day America to that of post-WWII years (after forging the New Deal and building the “largest middle class the world has ever known.”). Obama affirms that “the 10% consistently took home about ⅓ of our national income” but that because of the dynamic market of the time, “everyone’s incomes were growing… and because of upward mobility, the guy on the factory floor could picture his kid running the company someday.” The president contrasts this picture of our history with some current statistics: “Since 1979, when I graduated from high school, our productivity is up by more than 90 percent, but the income of the typical family has increased by less than eight percent. Since 1979, our economy has more than doubled in size, but most of that growth has flowed to a fortunate few. The top 10 percent no longer takes in one-third of our income -- it now takes half. Whereas in the past, the average CEO made about 20 to 30 times the income of the average worker, today’s CEO now makes 273 times more. And meanwhile, a family in the top 1 percent has a net worth 288 times higher than the typical family, which is a record for this country.” The president is sketching out a pretty hostile landscape with a softer history, and drawing his audience into this story and encouraging solidarity in his demand for reform. In essence, he is using dramatic logic to elicit his audience to seek reclamation of a lost American Dream.
Obama uses ethos throughout his speech to appeal to the ethical ideals of his audience. One instance I thought to be particularly interesting was when the president made reference to a surprising source in Adam Smith when making an argument for increasing minimum wage.
“This shouldn’t be an ideological question. It was Adam Smith, the father of free-market economics, who once said, “They who feed, clothe, and lodge the whole body of the people should have such a share of the produce of their own labor as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed, and lodged.” And for those of you who don’t speak Old-English — (laughter) — let me translate. It means if you work hard, you should make a decent living. (Applause) If you work hard, you should be able to support a family.” With this statement, I believe that Obama makes a strong appeal to ethos towards Republicans, even though this it is not a conservative population that makes up his audience.
“Over the last two months, Washington has been dominated by some pretty contentious debates – I think that's fair to say. And between a reckless shutdown by congressional Republicans in an effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and admittedly poor execution on my administration's part in implementing the latest stage of the new law, nobody has acquitted themselves very well these past few months. So it's not surprising that the American people's frustrations with Washington are at an all-time high.” I believe this section of Obama’s speech has a purpose of relating to the ethical beliefs of his audience by highlighting his own ethics. He does this by acknowledging the partisan political environment that has dominated Washington as of late. Obama uses the words 'reckless shutdown by Congressional Republicans' to describe the attempted repeal of what is commonly referred to as Obamacare or ACA. I see the use of the word “reckless” by Obama uses the word ‘reckless’ as a misstep because it elicits a very negative and divisive connotation, which I think betrays the purpose of this speech. But, Obama is also taking blame in the people's distrust in government by his administration’s ‘poor execution’ in implementing the ACA correctly. Despite Obama’s stumble into hostile territory, he remains dignity as he is able to see others' mistakes while admitting his own. This goes well with Obama's image of bipartisanship and moderate policies. In fact, it seems that Obama is reluctant to call out the Republican Party explicitly. Throughout his entire speech, he only mentions Republicans twice. I see this as a choice to play down partisan politics and be more a voice of the “people”, even when speaking to staunchly liberal crowd. This may also be an attempt to keep his audience focused on his purpose at hand, outlining the need for economic reform, rather than evoking a dramatic (and easy) scene of calling out the wrongs of the other side.
Another ethical focus of Obama’s speech pertained to the shift of inequality in our nation’s history from the primary effect of racism, to becoming more about classism. Obama had this to say regarding classes in America these days: “The decades-long shifts in the economy have hurt all groups… the gap in test scores between poor kids and wealthy kids is now nearly twice what it is between white kids and black kids… The opportunity gap in America is now a s much about class as it is about race, and that gap is growing.” The president makes this statement without dismissing the effects of racism, but rather is escalating the urgency of necessary economic reform by adding the dynamic of classism to the mix. This is a well-executed step for the president to address the very relevant concerns of his audience on issues of class, which is a major issue for progressive organizations such as the CAP.
The last rhetorical method of appeal to discuss is that of pathos, which is ultimately utilized throughout Obama’s speech with emphatic and subtle statements alike, as well as emotional undertones that permeate through Obama’s speech. It is this emotion that seems to drive Obama’s passion for these issues. It is this emotion that makes Obama such a compelling speaker as it is the reason for his ability to connect with every kind of person. When Obama speaks with passion he morphs into the poor kid he once was, rather than the most powerful figure in the most powerful country in the world. In one emotional statement, Obama quotes the Pope himself while discussing how the American Dream has been frayed: “How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?” Another emotional appeal was the following, “the idea that so many children are born into poverty in the wealthiest nation on Earth is heartbreaking enough. But the idea that a child may never be able to escape that poverty because she lacks a decent education or health care, or a community that views her future as their own, that should offend all of us and it should compel us to action. We are better than this.” The president is almost using a tactic of guilt with this statement, not to shame his audience, but to inspire action and illustrate his compassion and commitment to solve the crisis he (and his audience) views the state of our economy to be.
In conclusion, President Obama successfully utilized the rhetorical tools of logos, ethos, and pathos to relate with an audience of believers and most likely compelled them to a greater awareness of the problems faced by economic inequality and the decline of upward mobility in America. By laying down an enormous amount of facts, he compelled his already tuned-in audience to a heightened sense of dire urgency. Through emotional language depicting the sad reality that many Americans face due to cycles of poverty and lack of educational opportunities, he further drew the attention of his audience and connected with them more tangibly, as a real person who cares deeply about the people he serves. By appealing to the ethical beliefs of the audience, that it is government’s responsibility to make a difference in rebuilding America’s economic and civic foundation, Obama hit his mark with this crowd, persuasively petitioning their support for policies that will propel his campaign for economic reform.