Presidential Rhetoric

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In the eyes of the American public the President of the United States is the most public figure in government and to the perception of most the most powerful, due in part to the rhetoric the president uses. The president has not always been perceived to have such influence because for a large part of American history all presidents, until President Wilson, did not address the public in the way that is common today. Opposite to what many might have assumed the president of the United States is not as influential on politics and policies as he is perceived to be and as presidential rhetoric would have you believe. People now run for president with a platform of policies they promise to fulfill, under the concept that they are speaking for the …show more content…

Johnson decided to address the issue of poverty by framing it in the context of a war, treating poverty as an opponent to defeat and became very involved in the crafting of legislation. As Tulis describes, Johnson had Sargent Shriver draft a version of his bill to address poverty within six weeks that was based around the rhetoric that Johnson was using in his speeches (Tulis). The inherent problem in this was that six weeks was not enough time for Shriver to be able iron out the details necessary to battle poverty. One of the main stables to combat poverty were community action programs, but no one new how or if they were working to address the issue. Johnson's actions are indicative of the style started by Woodrow Wilson, who argued that if he did not employ rhetoric then Congress would not act because of the lack on accountability in Congress. While this is true that due to the member of members involved in passing a bill, it is easy for the members to not act because the public does not know exactly who is involved in what and there are many people to point the finger to, it does not always have the desired effect nor is necessary. In the case of Johnson his rhetoric was forcing Congress to move at a faster pace than intended in order to use the positive public opinion that his project had. The passing of this form of Great society legislation is not the result of the form of rhetoric used by Johnson. When Johnson was delivering his State of the Union Address and the subsequent speeches he was not actually shaping public opinion. Through the use of the term war Johnson was presenting it as a crisis that the president had the ability and authority to address and fix, however all it was was a rhetorical style used to rush the legislative process and excite the public. Tulis points out that 60% of the public

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