Rhetorical Analysis Of Joseph Mccarthy Speech

In the speech delivered by Joseph McCarthy towards the citizens of United States, he addresses the fact that there are members of the Communist Party within the government including the Secretary of State. He successfully addresses his point that they should remove the members of the Communist Party by using rhetorical devices such as senses he is experiencing, logos, and pathos.

By McCarthy mentioning the senses he is experiencing, he appeals to the sense of emotion. He addresses that he could “see it, feel it, and hear it all the way from the Indochina Hills.” to cause outrage and create exigency that World War II led to many wounds throughout the country and yet it seems like the country is facing challenges due to the members of the Communist Party within the government. The only way for them to fight though the challenges is that they should remove the enemies within the country as they are slowly will be influencing the country since they are in the governmental systems.

McCarthy closes the fourth paragraph by declaring a war between two diametrically opposed ideologies. By this, he creates a sense of logic that the USSR is currently opposing the ideology of United States. Since both countries play a big role in the global economy and politics, as McCarthy calls USSR the “powerful potential

enemy”, there would be problems that both countries would oppose one another, and therefore, two countries have to convince or fight a war to change the other’s ideology to theirs as said by McCarthy when he mentions”Today we are engaged in a final, all-out battle between Communistic atheism and Christianity.”
The speaker calls communism the religion of immoralism.

The speaker believes that “religion of immoralism will more deeply wound and damage mankind than any conceivable economic or political system”. By speaker adding the explanation why communism is a religion of immoralism, he establishes a sense of logos and pathos. By the speaker explaining his intentions behind his beliefs, he addresses his point that communism leads to a bad pathway for an individual or for a country as a whole. Furthermore, he establishes fear against communism by showing the bad sides of communism such as by stating some examples of Joseph Stalin’s explanation behind the expulsion of

people.
During his speech towards the US citizens, he starts asking questions to build ip exigency and pathos. By asking questions such as “Can there be anyone tonight who is so blind as to say that the war is not on?” he establishes a sense that the war is not over, and it is just starting to engage the audience to go against the ideology of communism as the war seems to be US against the ideology of communism or USSR. To engage the audience more, McCarthy asks more questions such as “Can there by anyone who fails to realize that the Communist world has said the time is now?” to build up courage in the audience to make them participate in the defeat of communism. By using a word such as “traitorous”, he creates a sense of us versus them. He explains those people who are on the Communist side are not patriotic and betrayed their country to join the Communists.
Throughout his speech, he starts it off on a witty note by celebrating President Lincoln’s birthday, but breaks and starts using negative connotations to explain how bad the enemies from within acts towards them. It impacted the citizens more because it was during the time of Cold War when there was a big tension between Communism and democracy.