Nixon Checker’s speech

Nixon Checker’s speech

Introduction

Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37^th president of the United States of America. In the Checkers speech, Nixon responded to the criticism regarding the alleged “secret fund”. He was running for vice president as a Republican candidate alongside presidential candidate, Dwight Eisenhower. He had been criticized for accepting supplementary salary $ 18000 which was contributed by a group of supporters. During his speech in response to the allegations, he used the rhetorical appeals to persuade his audience so as to accept his point of view. Examples of rhetorical appeals include ethos, pathos, logos. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how he used these appeals to persuade his audience.

Ethos

Ethos often refers to the appeal to a person’s ethics. Ethos is used as a means of convincing an audience through the use of the authority of the speaker.  Ethos can often be demonstrated in a speech by sounding fair and demonstrating their expertise or pedigree. The introduction to his speech has ethos when he talks about his position and his problem and he indirectly presents choice over the judgments made to him. In the speech, there are elements of ethos. For instance, he establishes the bona fides of the accounting and legal firms that conducted the assessment of the legality of the donations. “It is an audit made by Price Waterhouse & Co. firm, and the legal opinion by Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher, lawyers in Los Angeles, the biggest law firm, and incidentally, one of the best ones in Los Angeles”.

He also establishes his own credibility as a boy who came from humble beginnings and shows how hard he worked to survive through college and law school. He reiterates how he served in World War 2,” let me say that my service record was not a particularly unusual one. I went to the south pacific. I guess I’m entitled to a couple of battle stars. I got a couple of commendation but I was just there when the bombs were falling”.  Nixon uses ethos by talking about the confidence that people have in those who are running for Vice presidency

Pathos

Pathos refers to the evoking the audience’s emotions. It is seen as a way of convincing an audience by triggering an emotional response to a convincing story. Pathos is seen as a language that draws out feelings of pity or anger in the audience. Nixon’s speech is the poster child of emotional appeal in American political history.

He plays pathos by manipulating peoples’ feelings towards him by saying he is an honest person. “I have a theory, too, that the best and only answer to a smear or to an honest misunderstanding of the facts is, to tell the truth. And that’s why I’m here tonight. I want to tell you my side of the case.” He portrays that he is also struggling just like the people in his audience. He admits to only having $ 4000 in life insurance and pays a 4% interest on a loan he was given by his parents. He admits that the little cocker spaniel dog was the only political gift he received. Nixon says his 6-year daughter, Tricia, loved the dog and named it Checkers. He aims to bring up feelings of pity, love, and family through the story. Nixon lets his listeners know how tough it has been. He says,” it isn’t easy to come before a nation-wide audience and bare your life, as I have done. With this, he aims at seeking pity from his listeners by appealing to their emotions. Nixon’s appeals to pathos resonated powerfully thus convincing his target audience.

Logos

Logos is the appeal to the logic and reasoning.It is a way of persuading an audience using facts and figures. When a speaker uses logos as a rhetorical appeal, they are reasoning with their audience and providing them with facts and statistics. The speakers also tend to make historical and literal analogies. In the earlier stages of the speech, Nixon uses the elements of logos by producing evidence from a credible audit by Price Waterhouse & Co firm and a prominent law firm. He argues that the fund was neither secret nor illegal. He explains that the purpose of the fund was to remove financial burdens from the American citizens.

He also uses logos by providing facts about on why he did not spend the money. For instance, he says, “I say that it was morally wrong if any of that $ 18,000 went to Senator Nixon for my personal use. I say that it was morally wrong if it was secretly given and secretly handled. And I say that it was morally wrong if any of the contributors go special favors for the contributions they made”. He is seen as to be reasoning with the public after which he provides the facts. This clearly portrays the use of logos

Conclusion

In conclusion, the speech was based on ethos and pathos but relied on logos to prove his innocence. In the end, it proved effective since he was able to convince the public and show his point.