Because my life is not that interesting and because I think politics are fun to talk about, I am choosing to use The State of the Union address as my rhetorical situation. We are certainly a nation that is divided in two – Democrats against Republicans – and while I’ll try not to express my own opinions on certain matters, I will hope that this blog will bring about big change in Washington. Just kidding. No one reads English Rhetoric blogs. Now, let’s see what Bitzer might say about President Trump’s State of our Union.
Let’s start with the Rhetorical Situation – the speech. The State of the Union is a speech that is given once a year by the President of the United States to a joint session of Congress (both the House and Senate). There are also other people there, like the Supreme Court justices, some important military generals, and guests of the president. The President announced to the joint session all the accomplishments that his administration has made such as: unemployment rates going down, tax cuts, the economy, the killing of terrorists, and the public-school systems. When President Trump announced an accomplishment, the Republicans stood up and cheered while the Democrats stayed seated. A few times the Democrats stood up and applauded, but it didn’t happen too often. After stating his accomplishments, Trump asked the joint session to help him pass certain bills that would hopefully improve the lives of Americans. In this way, he looked to the future and stated what he hoped to accomplish.
Now, is this speech given because of change, or because change needs to be made? It’s actually a little of both which Bitzer may not agree with. Bitzer states that “it is the situation which calls the discourse into existence” (Bitzer). Meaning, that a certain event must happen in order for the rhetoric – speech – to be given. This is true for the State of the Union because if there are no events that happen in our nation, then no speech would need to be given. However, the President also uses the speech to hopefully spark change and make the United States more successful.
President Trump stated many exigencies during his speech (immigration, religion, public schools, the second amendment, etc.), but I will only explore one of them. One exigence he talked about was the public-school system. Trump talked about how some school systems were poor and didn’t have enough money to help their students succeed. He spoke of a plan to help improve these schools and stated that he hopes to make sure that every high school in America has opportunity for Tech related classes and classrooms. He asked congress for help on this matter – he felt that the school system needs to be changed which shows exigence – and plans to set aside billions of dollars for his plan.
The audience for this speech was everyone in America. One of the reasons for the State of the Union is to let the American People know what is going on and what has been accomplished by the President. This is one of the many tools that the people can use to get a sense if the President has been successful or not. You could also say that congress is the audience as well. When President Trump asks for their help on legislation, it will be up to them to pass it into law. They are an important piece in determine the President’s success.
Bitzer would say that constraints in this speech would be congress, the media, The President himself, as well as many others. Congress could be a good or bad constraint. The republicans will be more willing to help the president and cheer for his accomplishments, while democrats will do the opposite. The media can also be a positive or negative constraint – they could portray the SOTU as a success or a failure which could affect the Presidents chances of re-election. The President is also a constraint because of how he delivers his speech. Depending on what he says and how he says it, will determine President Trump’s success by the people viewing the speech.
Photo from Getty Images and: https://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/scheduling/481129-this-week-trump-to-give-state-of-the-union-before-impeachment
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