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If you’re wondering how Donald Trump, businessman and reality television icon with no experience as an elected official, won the 2016 Presidential election: Take a look at the speech he gave last night.
To get it out of the way, I’m not a reporter; I’m an opinion writer. And as such I want to spend some time exploring not only the content but the structure of this speech as we discuss it. There’s an episode of The West Wing in Season 2 called Somebody’s Going to Emergency; Somebody’s Going to Jail in which the ultra progressive Toby Ziegler explains speechwriting to a DC cop tasked with protecting him at a protest. I highly suggest you watch it; it’s about a minute. Don’t worry; we’ll wait for you.
Toby explains the science of listener attention, a toolkit to build a rhythm in listening to bring your audience around to your argument. Things like the repetition of phrases, alliteration, paired opposites and something I call sandwich drop-ins are all pretty common tools in rhetoric, and (if the reporting is to be believed, speech writers are notoriously gun-shy about taking credit) Stephen Miller used these tools to great effect in tonight’s speech.
“Tonight, as we mark the conclusion of our celebration of Black History Month, we are reminded of our Nation’s path toward civil rights and the work that remains. Recent threats targeting Jewish Community Centers and vandalism of Jewish cemeteries, as well as last week’s shooting in Kansas City, remind us that while we may be a Nation divided on policies, we are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all its forms.”div>
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President Trump begins his speech by acknowledging Black History Month and immediately condemning the horrific threats and attacks on Jewish Community Centers and the murder of two Indian men in Kansas in the same segment. These are all sentiments that both sides of the aisle, his immediate audience, must publically agree with. This must get applause for the President of the United States. At the very outset, he begins by setting his audience into the pattern of being able to agree with him on something. He also establishes a rhythm that when these three things are linked.
Then, immediately following there is a wink and a nod to the vocabulary of the ultra-right, a vocabulary that doesn’t always agree with the sentiment of the first paragraph. Look at how he then sets up the established link he has built between Black History Month (an oft-ridiculed notion by some of the Right), the JCC threats and vandalism, and the Kansas murders, and contrasts them with his next segment:
“…That torch is now in our hands. And we will use it to light up the world. I am here tonight to deliver a message of unity and strength, and it is a message deeply delivered from my heart.
A new chapter of American Greatness is now beginning.
A new national pride is sweeping across our Nation.
And a new surge of optimism is placing impossible dreams firmly within our grasp.
What we are witnessing today is the Renewal of the American Spirit…”
The audience now has two groups established in their minds, the problem that we condemn, and the solution we must embrace. Them, and us. A theme has been established.
Just a few lines later:
“For too long, we’ve watched our middle-class shrink as we’ve exported our jobs and wealth to foreign countries.
We’ve financed and built one global project after another, but ignored the fates of our children in the inner cities of Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit — and so many other places throughout our land.”
Us: Our middle class is suffering.
Them: Their global projects caused the suffering:
Us: Our children are suffering.
Them: In predominantly Black populations and other places maybe or maybe not linked to other minorities. (inner cities is an extraordinarily common term for Black)
Throughout the rest of the speech, he uses these paired opposites to build on his theme that the “They” grouping is responsible for all the ills of America, and this is a thing that works. Establishing a common enemy is the swiftest way to unite any group of people. Watch how the speech then, with almost an A/B rhyme scheme, ties inner cities, drugs, and immigration together then introduces Radical Islamic Terrorism:
“To protect our citizens, I have directed the Department of Justice to form a Task Force on Reducing Violent Crime.
I have further ordered the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice, along with the Department of State and the Director of National Intelligence, to coordinate an aggressive strategy to dismantle the criminal cartels that have spread across our Nation.
(A) We will stop the drugs from pouring into our country and poisoning our youth — and we will expand treatment for those who have become so badly addicted.
(B) At the same time, my Administration has answered the pleas of the American people for immigration enforcement and border security. By finally enforcing our immigration laws, we will raise wages, help the unemployed, save billions of dollars, and make our communities safer for everyone. We want all Americans to succeed — but that can’t happen in an environment of lawless chaos. We must restore integrity and the rule of law to our borders.
(A) For that reason, we will soon begin the construction of a great wall along our southern border. It will be started ahead of schedule and, when finished, it will be a very effective weapon against drugs and crime.
(B) As we speak, we are removing gang members, drug dealers and criminals that threaten our communities and prey on our citizens. Bad ones are going out as I speak tonight and as I have promised.
(A) To any in Congress who do not believe we should enforce our laws, I would ask you this question: what would you say to the American family that loses their jobs, their income, or a loved one, because America refused to uphold its laws and defend its borders?
(B) Our obligation is to serve, protect, and defend the citizens of the United States. We are also taking strong measures to protect our Nation from Radical Islamic Terrorism.
(C) This is Toby’s “One that’s not like the other We must protect us from them, and these them are just like those them. A/B/A/B – C
The rest of the speech has example after example, but you can read the transcript here. The point is, dear readers, that what’s more terrifying to people who agree with my politics isn’t the content of the speech, but the smartness of its structural delivery.
The speech, for the most part, did not run too far off the established conservative platform: Immigration bad, deregulation good, Obamacare bad, school vouchers good. The exception being the establishment of a new policing department, “…called VOICE — Victims Of Immigration Crime Engagement. We are providing a voice to those who have been ignored by our media, and silenced by special interests.” Which sounds either toothless or the most dangerous overreach of a government I can imagine, I haven’t decided yet.
The speech wasn’t going to convince any progressive liberal activist that the Trump Administration has the right ideas because it wasn’t meant to.
What it does do, however, is it smartly guides fence sitting conservatives into finding themselves in agreement with Trump, and that is a dangerous thing for a divided liberal wing.
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Photos: Getty Images
He could have gotten up there and said, “lets all mombo dogface to the banana patch”, and the extremist left would twist it to their own end.
Now its the way he says things?
I’m embarrassed to call myself a Democrat after watching the sour grapes, childish, snide looks and action of our side of the Isle.
We are moving ahead people, get on board or get off so someone more productive can step in.