Mario Cuomo's Speech

The Democratic Party was facing a difficult election in 1984 against an extremely popular president, Ronald Reagan, whom for four years had dominated the political United States. In his “Keynote Address to the Democratic Convention” in 1984, Mario Cuomo, the Italian-American New York governor, addresses the strain a Republican president has put on the nation’s lower and middle classes. He mentions President Reagan’s view of the nation from his “Shining City on a Hill”, a phrase which the President used many times throughout his career to describe the prosperity of America’s upper class. Cuomo challenges President Reagan’s beliefs that America is thriving with allusions to the lives of lower class Americans, and states that the nation is instead

He begins by raising doubts about the accuracy of Reagan’s beloved vision of America as the “Shining City on a Hill”, alluding to emotion-stirring stories of the homeless in Chicago and mothers who struggle to feed their children. His use of ethos poses the question “If our very own president doesn’t know what’s going on in our country, what makes him qualified to lead this country into a bright future?” Most of Cuomo’s speech challenges the decisions and qualifications of President Ronald Reagan, making him appear as the country’s enemy. Cuomo repeatedly appeals to his audience’s emotions by referring to the country as a family who has been separated by the ideals of Republicans, arguing that they divide the nation into the “lucky and the left out, the royalty and the rabble”(275). His metaphoric “wagon train” of America calls for Democratic action, as the Republicans can’t make it to the frontier “unless some of the old, some of the young, some of the weak are left behind”(274). Once again, Cuomo articulates his vision of the nation’s people as a “family” by finishing off with the story of his own family. He uses both pathos and ethos to confirm that, being the son of immigrants who worked hard to provide for their family, his appeals are credible. His use of vivid imagery like witnessing his

The New York governor captivates his audience with the image of a “better tomorrow” in the hands of a Democratic president. President Reagan was in office until 1989 when he was succeeded by another Republican president, George H. W. Bush. His term saw a mere 2% GDP increase until 1993 when the United States inaugurated the first Democratic president in over twelve years. President Bill Clinton’s strategic fiscal discipline created over 22 million jobs, while unemployment for African Americans and Hispanics fell to the lowest rates on record. The Clinton years are remembered as an era of progress and prosperity in America, and they fulfilled Cuomo’s vision of an abundant