Sample Persuasive Speech

Sample Persuasive Speech

Topic: Getting involved with local political issues.

Purpose:  To persuade

Central Idea:  Everyone needs to be involved with local politics.

1. Attention. We are in danger of living in a totalitarian country.  Donald Trump is incompetent, corrupt and some even think he is mentally ill.  I have voted in every presidential election since I was 18 and have been deeply disappointed when a Republican won.  But I have never been this scared about the future of our country and the world.  We have all got to come together as patriotic citizens to save the United States of America.

1. The national political situation is dire.

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1. Our president was elected without the popular vote.
2. He has never held public office or served in the military.
3. He lied about President Obama wiretapping him, declared the media the enemy of the people, wants to defund Meals on Wheels, tried to repeal Obamacare and wants to reduce environmental protections, said the court system was a threat to national security and the list goes on. (Levitz)
4. It is easy to feel hopeless and that we have no control over the big issues facing our country.

• We all need to start working on the local level.

1. The Indivisible Guide was created by a few congressional staffers who published it after Trump was elected. (Indivisible)
   1. They modeled it after the Tea-Party tactics who opposed Obama’s agenda. (Indivisible)
   2. It explains how to disrupt the Trump agenda by writing and calling senators and representatives, going to their town hall meetings and visiting their offices. (Indivisible)
   3. The guide has been down-loaded 2 million times. (Indivisible)
   4. Local “Indivisible” groups have popped up in every district in the country and you can find yours on their website. (Indivisible)
   5. “We believe that Donald Trump’s agenda does not depend on Donald Trump–it depends on members of Congress rubber-stamping that agenda,” says Ezra Levin, a former Democratic staffer and co-founder of the project. “And perhaps the only great thing about Congress is that members are responsive to their constituents. Every member of Congress wakes up thinking about re-election.” (Holland, 2017)

1. The Nation, a left-leaning publication, reported on the huge surge in local activism across the country with one in three Democrats saying they will be more politically active and 40% of Democratic women. (Holland, 2017)

1. KnockEveryDoor is a nationwide campaign to get people from every neighborhood to knock on their neighbors’ doors and find out how they voted and why. (KnockEveryDoor)

1. It was started by ex-Bernie Sanders campaign people. (KnockEveryDoor)
2. Their goal is to flip back the districts that went from Obama to Trump. (KnockEveryDoor)
3. They will collect all this information in a huge database to inform upcoming elections. (KnockEveryDoor)

1. Run for Something is an organization dedicated to getting people under 35 years old to run for office. (Run for Something)
   1. They will train them. (Run for Something)
   2. They will help raise money for their campaigns. (Run for Something)
   3. The candidates must be progressive: pro-immigrant, pro-lgbtq rights, pro-choice, pro-health care, pro-voting rights, etc. (Run for Something)

1. Ritchie Torres is the youngest New York City Councilman. (Rios)
   1. He grew up in the Throgs Neck Houses in the East Bronx. (Rios)
   2. He became involved in politics as a high school student attending Lehman High School when he campaigned for a local community board member. (Gonnerman).
   3. He is the chairman of the NYC Committee on Public Housing, the largest public housing system in the country (Mother Jones) and represents the Central Bronx, the 15^th district (Gonnerman).
   4. He is now fighting Trump’s agenda to defund public housing. (Rios).

Imagine New York state with free health care, strict environmental laws, respectful police forces and a progressive tax system.  Then California does the same, then a host of other states.  Imagine a Democratic-lead House of Representatives and Senate.  We can create the country we want no matter who is in the White House.  Nobody else will come to save us.  We have to save ourselves.

1. Every one of you can do something.  At the least, you can join an indivisible group and get texts that tell you who to call and what to say.  Or you can join a local campaign—state representative, city council, even community board.  You can even run for an office yourself.  Like Obama said, “So, you see, that’s what our democracy demands. It needs you. Not just when there’s an election, not just when your own narrow interest is at stake, but over the full span of a lifetime. If you’re tired of arguing with strangers on the Internet, try talking with one of them in real life. If something needs fixing, then lace up your shoes and do some organizing. If you’re disappointed by your elected officials, grab a clip board, get some signatures, and run for office yourself.” (Obama)

References

Gonnerman, J., “Fighting for the Poor Under Trump, The New Yorker, December 12, 2016. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/12/12/fighting-for-the-poor-under-trump, accessed 4/18/2017.

Holland, J., “Your Guide to the Sprawling New Anti-Trump Resistance Movement,” The Nation, February 26, 2017. https://www.thenation.com/article/your-guide-to-the-sprawling-new-anti-trump-resistance-movement/, accessed 4/17/2017.

Indivisible Guide, www.indivisibleguide.com/about-us, accessed 4/17/2017.

KnockEveryDoor, https://knockeverydoor.org/, accessed 4/17/2017.

Levitz, E. “All the Terrifying Things that Donald Trump did Lately,” New York, March 29, 2017. http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/03/every-terrifying-thing-that-donald-trump-has-done.html, accessed 4/18/2107.

Obama, B., “President Obama’s Farewell Address,” January 10, 2017, Chicago, as quoted in The New York Times, January 10, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/10/us/politics/obama-farewell-address-speech.html, accessed 4/18/2017.

Rios, E., “New York City’s Youngest Councilman Grew up in the Projects.  Now He’s Defending them Against Trump,” Mother Jones, March 24, 2017.  http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/03/new-york-city-councilman-ritchie-torres, accessed 4/18/2017.

Run for Something. https://www.runforsomething.net, accessed 4/18/2017.