Inclusive
and Socialist Rhetoric in Joe Biden’s Election Speeches 2020
Dig Dhoj Lawati
M. Phil. Scholar
Nepal Open
University
Abstract
In democratic
administrative model, the country is ruled by the political parties. To gain
the reign of the country, the leaders from the different political parties must
participate in periodic election. They have to win the majority votes from the
sovereign public who hand over their sovereign power to their elects for
certain period. But when they involve in election campaign they have to deliver
their plans and future objectives concerning the country. So, to win the vote
of public voter they adopt different propagandas and rhetoric to manipulate the
opinion of public voters. Recently the presidential election of United States
was conducted for the post of President in November, 2020. Mainly the two
political parties were participated; they were Democratic and Republican
parties. Joe Biden was the presidential nominee from the Democratic Party and
Donald Trump was the presidential nominee from Republican Party. While Trump
was advocating the conservative issues mainly concerning with the white people,
Biden was proposing the future reign of United States as inclusive where every
people would enjoy the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. He was also
proposing the socialist reformations concerning the social and economic aspects
of people of America. In this paper I analyze how the socialist and inclusive
rhetoric was used in Biden's election campaign speech 2020 in US is analyzed by
adopting the critical discourse analysis and political discourse analysis
devices.
Keywords:
Socialist; Inclusive; Rhetoric; Political
Rhetoric; Political Discourse Analysis; Critical Discourse Analysis
1. Introduction
Practice
of rhetoric originated in ancient Greece where politicians, preachers, and
orators as a rhetors practiced it to
convince the listeners or their audiences. Rhetoric basically is indebted in
the speeches of political actors for the convincing audiences. Rhetoric arises
from the practice of oratory, acts of formal speaking before citizens gathered
together- political orations, sermons, law court arguments - and also bears the
influence of artistic performances and casual exchanges of conversations (Connolly,
2009). Though rhetoric is found mostly in every domain, it has been mostly used
by the politicians in their political speeches. So the rhetoric, rhetorical
studies, and rhetoric and composition as separate academic discipline exist in
academia to study those political discourses used by politicians. In academic
world speeches are taken as the discourse which are critically analyzed by
applying the different rhetorical analytical tools. Within the different types
of political systems leaders rely on the spoken words to contrast the benefit
from their leaderships and with the danger the rises from the opponent
(Charteris-Black, 2011). Political
leaders depend on such speeches aiming at persuading and convincing to the
public that their saying and points are trust worthy and believable. In
classical rhetoric speeches are analyzed in the theoretical framework of
rhetorical genre theory; aim of such analysis is to find out the social
function, occasion and place of delivery (Reisigl, 2011).
Rhetorical
analysis and research on political speeches have been becoming long tradition
from the very beginning of time of Plato. For the understanding how the
politicians deliver speeches to convince the audiences is the subject of
interest of all time. In the rhetoric discipline different analytical
procedures are developed within. Ethos, Logos and Pathos are the traditional
rhetorical devices through which speeches are analyzed to find out how speeches
are meant to persuade audiences. Aristotelian rhetorical devices are ethos,
logos and pathos and they like ethos concerned credibility, logos concerned
with logic/arguments and pathos is related to the appeal to emotion (McCormack,
2014). In previous study of Adjei-Fobi
(2011) in Ghana about the rhetoric of Nkrumah and Rawlings found that they used
spoken word not only as a medium but also mask their intention; metaphors were
utilized as a deliberative communicative tool in the rhetoric of the two
ex-presidents. By applying the Aristotelian rhetorical framework and critical
discourse and political discourse analysis political speeches are analyzed and
found the hidden motive of those speakers are dog out by the previous
researchers in rhetorical study and researches. Finlayson and Martin's (2011)
study on British political speech of Toni Blair's last party conference speech
reported that investigation in British politics can shed light political
institutions and ideologies and strategies. Giordona's (2010) rhetorical
analysis of Hilary Clinton's speech reported that she was found skilled orator
and prolific speech giver by using striking rhetorical features in the
political speech genre using the metaphor keeping meaning, ideas, and concepts
together. These studies are based on the critical discourse analysis of the
political speeches which were based on the rhetoric related to the linguistic
critical discourse analysis. They mainly concerned with the linguistic
dimensions of those political speeches. Critical discourse related to the language
can only deal with the linguistic items
used by the orators. These studies are not concerned with the ideological
aspects of those speeches. There is research gap and this paper fills this gap
by studying the ideological aspects socialist and inclusive rhetoric in the
political speeches in Joe Biden of the election campaign for the presidential
poll of United States 2020. This paper has randomly selected the three speeches
delivered by the democratic presidential nominee Joe Bide in Ohio, Florida, and
Georgia. His speeches will be analyzed
by applying the critical and political discourse analysis method. The
analytical measures will be applied in speeches of the Biden to find out what
rhetoric he used in his speeches. This paper will answer the questions: what
kind of ideological terms related to the inclusive and socialist rhetoric did
Joe Biden use in his election campaign speeches? How he utilized the ground
situation to persuade the public?
2. Review
Before
entering into the study of inclusive and socialist rhetoric of Joe Biden's
speeches 2020, some topics are required to be discussed. One is the selection
of the source materials; second, collecting the literatures written about the
Joe Biden's speech rhetoric; and third, discussing the various methodologies
related political rhetorical analysis, judging the rhetoric and public
statements. As the tension between the whites and colored people was growing
amid that period, the presidential election was going to be held and Biden was
eager to win the situation in his favor.
The
primary texts of this paper are the
speeches of democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden taken from the archive from different You
Tube channels while there was going on
the election campaign for the presidential election 2020 November 14. Three
speeches of democratic nominee Joe Biden are archived from the different You
Tube channels. One of them is taken the speech delivered in Coconut Creek, Florida on 29 October, 2020. He was
campaigning before a week to be voted in presidential poll and media houses
were predicting a slight higher on hide than the opponent Trump in Florida.
This speech was telecasted CNBC TV and archived by that television
broadcaster. One of them is the speech
delivered in Cleveland, Ohio November 2, 2020 when the presidential
election campaigns were edging. In Ohio Biden addressed was broadcasted and
store red by CNBC television which is taken from the rhetorical analysis in
this article. The edging classes of candidates was heating the streets ; many
states had voted already before. Other speech is archived from the Joe Biden's You Tube
channel delivered in Atlanta, Georgia on
28, October 2020 a week before the election day.
Joe
Biden's frequent use of word 'Folks' is not a mere word but that carries some
social and economic meaning among the mass people residing in United
States. Biden left no stone unturned to
win the votes of Blacks, Asian, Hispanic and the Mexican. He was trying to
address the American people from the base.
Abbas
(2021) reported about the Biden's skillful rhetoric through the critical
discourse analysis and found that he used the images and discourse of Us
indicating good and positive and images and discourse indicating bad and
negative for Them. Biden used skillfully discourse positive for US and
discourse of negative THEM in all speeches.
Savoy and Wehren (2021) studied stylistics and rhetorical
characteristics on speeches of Trump and Biden and found that Trump used more
personal pronouns than the Biden. Biden used first person pronoun ( I, We) more
frequently . Republican nominee Trump used emotional words both negative and
positive. Democratic nominee Biden used
symbolic, achievement term with lots of references from people and family.
Neville-Shephard’s
(2020) study on the campaign speeches of
presidential election of US 2020 found that speeches expected were changed into
the discourse through different channels which were often fragmented, long and
endless unlikely to satisfy generic convention. Pavlikova's (2021) study about
the 2020 USA presidential election on both nominees Joe Biden and Donald Trump
found they both preferred to use metaphors when they were speaking about the
economy, the country, and the nation. While comparing both candidates Trump used
more figurative language in his speeches than his opponent than Joe Biden. These all studies are more focused on the
language discourse than the ideological discourse.
2.1 Theoretical Framework
and Methodology
To
dig out the socialist and inclusive rhetoric of Joe Biden's election campaign
speeches 2020 some design and methodologies adaptable in this paper's purpose
will be used. Political rhetorical
analysis proposed by Worsham (2002) takes it as involving rhetorical categories
to explore how political actors make interventions to control or ‘appropriate’
particular situations. These interventions can be understood as strategic in
that they are a means to negotiate the opportunities and constraints of any
circumstances as to achieve certain ends. They do this by deploying ideas – or,
better, arguments – to reorient audiences in relation to the prevailing
situation. Rhetoric helps us understand how political actors attempt to create
agency by resituating an issue in time and space so as to realize their goals.
Another
paper by the Burnyeat (2015) present judging rhetoric as ethical judgments
inevitably intrude even on our judgments of technique applies to all three of
the traditional rhetorical kinds – deliberative, forensic, and epideictic. It
is applicable into every rhetorical domain, whether broad or narrow. Yunis
(2017) put forward Plato’s efforts to develop a form of rhetoric that would
serve proper political ends become evident in his two large-scale attempts– the
Republic and the Laws – to imagine political communities under the control of
philosophy. In both dialogues the purpose of the state is to enhance knowledge
and virtue among the citizens individually and the community as a whole; all
are benefited by philosophical rule.
Andrew
(2012) states the rhetorical analysis as its focus is on political speeches art
of discourse and it tries to find out how such discourses are made and
received, who are the composes and audiences, what is the occasion, how the
exchange is constructed. Rhetoric is about who communicates what to whom about
what, in which modes and media, how and
why—though the latter function encroaches into the territory of
philosophy (Andrews 2013).
According to the Firestone (1987) the qualitative research method in
rhetoric believes there are multiple realities in social phenomenological
paradigm. Researcher interprets and describes so as to persuade that he is
really digging out the reality. In the same way Glen, Cheryl and Jessica (2010)
discuss about the historiography method in rhetoric and composition studies and
stare that it is the rich gift of the archival recovery which forwards the the
field as they identify new materials and reread old ones and contextualize in
terms of contemporary scholarly conversations.
Connor
(2004) proposed the new method for intercultural rhetoric research that
emphasized using variety of research tools to find the baseline comparison to
explain similarities and differences in written texts and other writing
activities through number of qualitative approaches. One of the most used
methodology in social sciences is critical discourse analysis ( CDA) which
analyses the semiotic dimensions of power, injustice and political-economic, social,
cultural change in society; its root lies in rhetoric, text linguistics,
anthropology, philosophy, socio psychology, cognitive science, literary
studies, and sociolinguistics (Wodak,
2014). Following this line of reasoning, Fairclough (2013) states that critical
discourse analysis (CDA) brings the critical tradition of social analysis into
language studies and contributes to critical social analysis a particular focusing
on discourse and on relations between discourse and other social elements ( power
relations, ideologies, institutions, social identities, and so forth). Using
the critical discourse analysis this paper aims to analyze democratic
presidential nominee Biden’s rhetoric related to the socialist and inclusive
domain that he used in selected speeches. Van Dijk (1997) recommends political
discourse analysis for analyzing the
political speeches which deal with both political discourse and critical
political discourse. Though there are many approaches in critical discourse
analysis, critical-political discourse analysis
deals with the reproduction of political power, power abuse or
domination through political discourse, including the various forms of
resistance or counter power against such forms of rational dominance.
Fairclough
and Fairclough (2013) state political discourse analysis method as analysis of
political discourse from a critical perspective, a perspective which analyzes
the production and examination of political power through the political
discourse. In this paper the speeches of
Biden are selected as the political discourse and will be analyzed withe the
analytical measure taken from the political discourse analysis (PDA) and
critical discourse analysis (CDA).
All
the reviewed literatures on Joe Biden's election campaign speeches 2020 are
focused on the skillful rhetoric about the bad and negative effects discourse,
stylistics and metaphorical language, fragmented discourses, and metaphoric
choices. These studies are not broad enough to cover the rhetoric that Biden
used in his election campaign of presidential poll of US 2020. These studies
are more focused only on language discourse. Biden must have used many more
rhetoric to win the votes of American citizens. Other ideological and political
discourses are left to be uncovered from the political speeches of Biden. There
is gap of uncovering ideological discourses from the presidential speeches of
Joe Biden.
This
paper analyses the hidden political and ideological rhetoric related the
socialist and inclusive in election campaign speeches of Joe Biden. The earlier
research works are only focused on the discourse of language in the speeches of
democratic presidential nominee of Joe Biden presidential poll of US 2020. This
paper applies the analytical measure from the critical discourse and political
discourse analysis method for the analysis of the election speeches of Joe
Biden. This paper takes the randomly selected three speeches of Biden and
applies the analytical methods of critical and political discourse analysis to
answer the following questions; how the Biden expressed the socialist and
inclusive rhetoric in his election campaign speeches? And what kind of ideology
language he adopted to deliver those ideologies in his speeches?
3. Analysis
For
the analytical purpose selected speeches of Joe Biden are transcribed and
extracted summary of each speech. Then critical and political discourse
analysis method is applied in each speech to dig out the ideological parts of
the speeches. Applying those analytical measures mainly the socialist and
inclusive ideologies will be traced out from the campaign speeches of Joe
Biden.
3.1 Speech 1 Joe Biden :
28/10/2020 Address Atlanta, Georgia
Summary:
He
addresses public as 'Folks' frequently to the mass. He thanks Mayor Keisha
Bottoms of Atlanta for supporting the campaigns from early. He puts his wishes
best wishes for the candidates for senate and house of representative. He
encourages to vote because only the power of vote can change the country. He is
too optimistic about the America and American people. He reminds that more than
two hundred and twenty five thousand people died because of the COVID 19 and
seven thousand eight hundred in Georgia. Millions of people are out of their
job. He blames Trump administration failure of controlling the pandemic. He
blames Trump's saying that people have to learn to live with it( Corona Virus).
He promises that he will responsibly control it with testing, tracing, and
masking. He requests people to wear masks for few months that would save one
hundred thousand lives. He blames Trump for not listening the science and
politicizing the vaccine race. He promises he will distribute vaccine freely
when it comes. He will manage the state fund for the PP, masks, gloves and all
the things to open the schools and businesses to run safely. He bring all
parties to deliver the economic relief for families, schools, and business but Trump did nothing to bring all parties
together. He promises he will not shut
down the country and economy but he will shut down the virus. He will build the
economy the Trump crashed without raising the taxes on the middle class. But he
will raise taxes from the wealthiest and biggest corporation. They will deliver
tax for working families, the middle class for buying home, for paying their
healthcare premiums or childcare or caring for an aging loved one. He warns of
insurers jacking up premiums and denying the coverage and women taking charge more
for their healthcare just because they are women. He says healthcare is
privilege for Trump but it is American right for him. If he is voted and wins
the election Obama care will be restored. He will increase the subsidies and
lower the premium and deduction. He will
protect Social Security and Medicare. Trump failed to condemn the white
supremacy and he does not believe in existence of systematic racism. But Biden
he believes Black Lives Matter. He approves the nationwide protest because that
is cry for justice from a community. He will give priority on good paying jobs
and he will implement fifteen dollar minimum wage nationwide. He will raise the
economy and raise the standard of living for everybody. When the folks at
bottom do better everybody does better and all the way up the ladder. He will
give real shot to the black and minority families to own the home, small
business, debt free college education so they can build wealth and pass on
opportunity through the generation like middle class families. He will increase
in investment of minority serving intuitions HBCU ( Historically Black College
or University) so the children of minority can go university. If he is elected
as president every American will be seen, heard and respected.
Critical and Political
Discourse Analysis:
Though
America is no the socialist country it has adopted many aspects of socialism.
Socialism is concerned with the equality, freedom and prosperity. The socialist
components of America are the government regulations, policies promoting a
welfare states, nationalization , welfare state responsible for its citizens,
providing health care, education, unemployment compensation, social security,
housing and public welfare ( Dictionary, 1998). Joe Biden in his speech in
Georgia indicates many works concerning the socialist characteristics. The
ongoing corona virus pandemic was not effectively controlled by the Trump
administration according to the Biden. He tries to convince the attendees of that campaign the he will
control the and shut down the virus by testing. Masking and tracing it very
responsibly. He thinks it is the duty of the state to fight such pandemic. But
trump administration lets American people to live with it according to him. His
promises of free distribution of vaccine and state funding for the PP, masks,
for the opening for the schools and business can be taken as another socialist program because those
things will be done as the responsible of country. His promise of bringing the
economic relief by bringing all parties together also resembles the state's
involvement in economic relief. His plan
to build the economy by not imposing the tax on middle class family and lower
income professional indicate the economic equality to be created. He has the
plan to impose income tax only on the big corporation and wealthiest citizens.
Imposing progressive tax and expending that money in the healthcare, education
and housing for the needy people resembles the socialist characteristics in the
Biden's rhetoric in election speech. He
will restore the Obama care and social security which is ignored by the Trump
administration. Only the welfare state ensures the social security for the aged
and needy people. Biden's speech rhetoric clearly indicates that he will adopt
the welfare state model of economy. He has a plan to give real shot to the
houseless people to own the home, start small business, and send their kids
debt free college. He also has a plan to finance the traditionally black
college and universities so that child re from black families can have access
of college education.
Society
cannot run smoothly when some communities are left behind from the main stream
of the country. So there appeared the concept of inclusive states. Inclusive
states enables each party to get more incentives to make close to each other
that leads to the most powerful and capable type of state (Acemoglu, Doran
and James A. Robinson, 2017). He assures
the women that some insurers are reluctant for the health insurance coverage
just because of they are women. Healthcare is the right of American people for
Biden. His blames on Trump for failing to condemn the white supremacy and not
believing the existence of the systematic racism in America reflects his
rhetoric toward the inclusive state.
There was going on nationwide protest for the the Black Lives Matter and
Biden takes it as the cry for the justice. Ther is time and again comes the
report of violence against the Asian. Hispanic, Mexican and Blacks. Biden p's
election speech rhetoric indicate that he wants to make America more inclusive
where everyone can enjoy the life , liberty and pursuit of happiness.
3.2 Speech 2 Joe Biden:
29/10/2020 Broward County, Florida
He
thanks all for being there and wearing masks and maintain distance. He
addresses public as 'Folks'. He gives sympathy to the families who lost their
family members because of the corona virus. He encourages them to vote because
the power of their vote can change the country for coming up generation. He
warns that if Florida goes blue (Republican) everything will be over. He gives
credit to the middle class for the development of country. He blames Trump
administration for giving up the situation and not trying to control the
situation. He also blames Trump for making division in addition, division and
discord in Florida. He focuses on such president who can unite them than
dividing the American society. He assures the free distribution of COVID 19 vaccine after its availability. He fund the
for the PPE, the masks and everything that need for the protection. He will set
the national standard for the reopen of the schools and business. He will bring together the Republican and
Democrats for bringing the economic relief for working families, the young
employed, for schools, for businesses. Twenty million people are losing their
home so he will not shot down the economy. But he will shot down the virus. He
blames Trump destroying the economy but he will build back the economy that
will reward work, not wealth. He will not impose the tax up to the four hundred
thousand dollars but when earning more than that they have to pay their fair
share. He will raise tax from the wealthy people and major corporation. He will
deliver tax relief for working families in the middle class. He will help
people to buy home and pay for their healthcare premium. He will fund for the
childcare and care for aging people. He thinks that healthcare is right of
American but Trump thinks it is privilege. From the healthcare funding will be
beneficial for the people suffering from the preexisting conditions like
asthma, diabetes, heart scarring, lung scarring, heart diseases. If he gets
elected he will reestablish Obama care. He will increase subsidies for the
health insurance premiums. He will protect social security and Medicare which
is thought to be bankrupt by 2023 by Trump. He is in favor of black lives
matter and there is existence of systematic racism in America. Trump is in
favor of whiter supremacy. Black lives matter protest in streets are the cry
for justice from communities that have been denied justice for long time. He is
going to inspire a new wave of justice in America, but true justice is also
about economic justice and education, housing, access to capital, good paying
jobs. It is financial stability and giving families of color to own a home, to
start a business, to send a child to college debt free. They can build the
wealth and pass on down through generation. He blames Trump of dividing America
on race, nationality, national origin, gender
but he chooses unity over the division and he chooses hope over fear.
Critical and Political
Discourse Analysis
This
election campaign speech delivered in Broward County Florida also carries the
inclusive and American model of socialist programs. Biden's address to the mass as 'Folks'
carries the special rhetoric of the equality and dignity. The word folks is
used for the people from the ground and
working class people. He gives credit of development to the middle class
families. He blames of Trump not controlling corona virus pandemic; he is
letting people to live with it. But Biden tries to control the virus in the
direct involvement of the state making making proper availability of masks,
vaccination, and tracing the virus. His
willingness of the role of state is the indication of the socialist model of the state. He has a plan not to raise tax
from the middle class family and working professional. But he will raise the
tax from the wealthy people and big corporations and spend that money for the
working class families to own the home, pay for healthcare premiums, and start
small business. He will continue the social security for the aged people.
Health care funding will be beneficial for the preexisting conditions patients
from heart disease, asthma, long scarring and diabetes. He will subsidies the
health care premiums for the working class people. Theses rhetoric of Biden
clearly resonates the socialist characteristic of economy and state that he
aims to achieve.
His
speech also carries the rhetoric of inclusive state building by bringing the
all people of race, background, and history. He blames Trump for creating
racial division in Florida. But he will bring all people of color and
background because America needs such president who can unite the country than
dividing people. Trump is infamous of white supremacy according to him but he
believes there is no existence of the structurally racism in America. He is in
favor of ongoing protest for the Black Lives Matter because that is the cry of
the justice. He will bring the new wave of justice but justice is the relative
with the education, access of healthcare, good paying jobs, housing, and access
to capital. He has a plan for financial support for the color families to own
home, start small business and send their kids debt free college. He blames
Trump for making division in race, nationality, national origin, and gender but
but he chooses to unity over division. These statements clearly indicate the
inclusive nation building rhetoric of the Joe Biden.
3.3 Speech 3: Joe Biden :
Cleveland, Ohio 2 November 2020
He
thanks to all the attendees of Cleveland
Ohio. He promises tomorrow they will unite the divided nation by Trump
by spreading hate across the country. His first priority is to control the
corona virus by effectively implementing masking, social distancing, testing
and tracing. He has the plan for free distribution of therapeutics and
vaccines. He requests them all to wear mask. He blames Trump for all the virus
infection infection and deaths because he did not take effective measure for
controlling it. He will maintain the balance trade with china and end tax
loopholes to stop shipping jobs overseas. He will add surtax who will ship jobs overseas. He will offer ten percent
tax credit who brings back companies in American manufacturing and bring jobs
back home. He will raise income tax who earns more than four hundred thousand
dollars. He will not impose tax on middle class and professional people like
firefighter, and educator, a cop and a welder. He will protect the healthcare
from which five million from Ohio will benefit who are suffering from the
preexisting conditions. He thinks health care is the right of American people.
He will restore the Affordable Care Act which is shattered by the Trump
administration. From that everyone will be able to keep private insurance or
they can choose a Medicare like the public option in the new plan. He will
increase subsidies and lower premiums and deductibles, out of pocket expenses
and surprise billings. He will reduce drug costs by sixty percent by allowing Medicare
to negotiate drug prices for all Americans. Trump believes Social Security
would be bankrupt by 2023. But he is going to protect Social Security. He will
act to bring racial justice in America. Ongoing protest and demonstration are
for the cry of justice . justice is not
meant the deal with police but it is about the jobs and building wealth, about
families, and education. His government will give real shot to own home, to
start small business, and send the child to college debt free. He blames Trump dividing
the America in race, gender, ethnicity, and national origin. But he believes
unity over division.
Critical and Political
Discourse Analysis
This
speech delivered in Cleveland Ohio on 2 November also resonates the socialists
rhetoric relating to the state funding in housing , healthcare, taxation, and
social security. He is longing to involve state in control of the corona virus
by testing, tracing, and masking. He will distribute the corona vaccine free
after its availability. He will consider the tax reduction for companies which
stay in the country and provide jobs. But he will increase the tax rate for the
companies which shift overseas. He will maintain the trade with China. He will
not impose the tax earning lower than the four hundred thousand dollars. But he
will raise the tax from big corporations and wealthy families and that money
will be spent in healthcare and education. For Biden healthcare is the right of
American people. So he will restore the Affordable Care Act which is wiped out
by the Trump. From which millions of people from Ohio will benefit suffering
from the preexisting conditions. They will be able to choose affordable insurance
or they can hold their own private insurance. He will reduce the cost of drugs
of by sixty percent. From this act
people from suffering from the precondition will benefit. His main focus is
social security because Trump administration has announced that it will become
bankrupt by the 2023. These statements of the Joe Biden clearly indicates that
he is using the socialist rhetoric to win the vote of the people. The welfare
state model is found to be preferred by Biden where the state government interfere
the life of its citizen for the welfare of the people.
In
this speech of Biden inclusive rhetoric is found in many points that made. His
main concern is that Trump is making division regarding the race by spreading
hatred among the different national origins. He will work to maintain the
racial justice in America. After killing of George Floyd there broke out the mass protest across the
America. People stated the campaign Black Lives Matter. Biden takes it as the cry for the justice
which was denied for long time to the colored people. But for him racial justice
not clash with police but it is concerned with providing jobs, making wealth,
and giving access to education. Trump is making division in race, color,
national origin. But he will maintain unity over division. He will bring
special packages for the color family to own home, start small business, and
send kids debt free college. These rhetoric carries the meaning for desire of
inclusive state building.
4. Conclusion
Democratic
presidential nominee Joe Biden found to use many social and inclusive rhetoric
in his election campaign speeches 2020. Biden used the rhetoric relating the
socialist welfare state and inclusive in the presidential poll of America of
2020. He mainly wanted to take the advantage of racial division created by
Trump by giving the inclusive rhetoric. He proposed the social model of economy
by involving the state business in the welfare of the people including the
employment, housing, social security, and healthcare. He was found to advocate
the equality, freedom and prosperity by adopting the socialist model of welfare
state, responsible for citizen, providing healthcare, education, unemployment
compensation, social security and housing. His first priority goes to the
controlling of the ongoing corona virus pandemic by strictly implementing the
masking, tracing and testing nationwide. He even had the plan of distributing
corona virus vaccine free of cost after its availability. This his socialist rhetoric
that he wants the state to involve in
its all effort. At the same time Trump was ignoring the state involvement in
controlling the corona virus. He proposes to fund for PP and masks for opening the business and schools.
His another important socialist rhetoric reflects in his taxation planning. He
wanted to raise tax from the wealthy people and big corporations. He wanted to
make working people benefit from those taxation because he had plans to spend
that money in the education, healthcare and social security for the aged people
and working class families. He has a plan for the working class families to own
home, start small business, and send their kid debt free colleges. He will
increase health care funding from which preexistence conditions people will
benefit like heart diseases, asthma, long scaring, and diabetes. He is willing
to restore the Obama care and Affordable care Act discarded by the Trump
administration. Form those programs working class people will be able to take
health care and pay their health insurance premium. Such promise holds the
socialist ideological trait in the speech of the Joe Biden.
He
was found to use inclusive rhetoric to win the vote of non-white voters. He
condemned the white supremacy advocated by Trump. He advocated that there is no
existence of systematic racism in America. He even met the daughter of George
Floyd white person killed by the police. From that incident Black Lives Matter
movement broke out in America. He proposes to increase the fund minority
serving institutions like HBCU black colleges and universities from that kids
from minorities and black families con get college education. Biden found to be
using the rhetoric related to the inclusive state building in America.
Specially the women of color are being denied the private hold of health
insurance but Biden promises that he will increase the subsidy for the health
care. The findings of this study reflects that how the politicians use
ideological rhetoric in their speeches to persuade and win the vote of the
voters. As other politicians Joe Biden was clever enough to analyze the ground
situation and use the the suitable ideological rhetoric of the inclusive and
socialist to win the vote of the mass voter of the United States. In his effort
he succeeded to win the vote of the people by winning the presidential poll of
2020. This study is the based on the rhetoric of Joe Biden, so it cannot be
generalized that how the politicians use ideological rhetoric in particular
context. For that, additional study is
need to find out the ideological connection between the speeches of the politicians
and their rhetoric.
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