Republican Orators from Eisenhower to Trump by Andrew S. Crines & Sophia Hatzisavvidou

Author:Andrew S. Crines & Sophia Hatzisavvidou
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

The 1992 ‘Murphy Brown’ Speech

The trigger for those riots had been the verdict in the Rodney King case, when four white police officers were acquitted of any wrongdoing in their handling of King, even though video evidence showed them being incredibly violent towards King. The acquittal, and the subsequent rioting, brought the issue of racial equality to the top of the political agenda. Given that Bush was seeking re-election later that year, it was an issue that needed to be handled carefully, as the events seemed indicative of a crisis of national confidence (Smith 1995: 154). However, in the immediate aftermath, it was not clear if the position of the Bush administration was one of empathy or condemnation (Mayer 2002: 239–42). Quayle decided to take the initiative in May 1992 with a speech in which he opened up with the rhetorical technique of hypophora—in which the orator generates attention, and hopefully connects with their audience, by asking a series of questions, which they themselves then set about answering for the audience. Quayle used this right at the beginning of his speech, stating clearly that:

… when I have been asked during these last weeks who caused the riots and the killing in LA., my answer has been direct and simple: Who is to blame for the riots? The rioters are to blame. Who is to blame for the killings? The killers are to blame. Yes, I can understand how people were shocked and outraged by the verdict in the Rodney King trial. But there is simply no excuse for the mayhem that followed. To apologize or in any way to excuse what happened is wrong. It is a betrayal of all those people equally outraged and equally disadvantaged who did not loot and did not riot-and who were in many cases victims of the rioters. No matter how much you may disagree with the verdict, the riots were wrong. And if we as a society don’t condemn what is wrong, how can we teach our children what is right? (Quayle 1992b)

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.