Pathos

When speechwriters sit down with their pen and paper, or laptop, or tablet, or whatever they're into, they're thinking about which words are going to get their message across in a way that provides the biggest bang for the buck.

Why? Because words convey emotion. And at a political party convention, when the newly-minted nominee is standing up in front of the crowd to thank them and ask for their support, it is All. About. The emotion. Speeches like this are written—and delivered—to invoke the feels.

In the world of literary rhetoric, we call this "pathos," the attempt to persuade by appealing to the emotions.

Senator Goldwater and his team are the kings of pathos in this speech to paint a picture for the audience of how bad things are now… and how awesome they could become.

First, Barry talks about the many failures the Kennedy-Johnson Administration is apparently singlehandedly responsible for overseas: the Berlin Wall, the Bay of Pigs embarrassment (okay, he may have a point with that one), the civil war in Laos, increasing tensions in Vietnam. To hear him tell it, these two are working on bringing about the end of freedom around the world.

And at home, things are just as bad. "Tonight there is violence in our streets, corruption in our highest offices, aimlessness among our youth, anxiety among our elders and there is a virtual despair among the many who look beyond material success for the inner meaning of their lives," Barry tells us (32). And furthermore, "[w]here examples of morality should be set, the opposite is seen" (33).

What a mess, right? Violence, corruption, aimlessness, anxiety, despair, immorality. Bleak, bleak, bleak. The audience fantasizes about going home and staying in bed for a month eating Pop-Tarts and watching I Love Lucy re-runs.

But wait. Barry has the answer.

It's Republicanism.

What is Republicanism? It's "[b]alance, diversity, creativity" (124). It's "free and peaceful," with "room for the deliberation of the energy and talent of the individual" (99). It's "the great framework which assures the orderly but dynamic fulfillment of the whole man" (114).

In other words, it's everything that the past four years haven't been. It's the cure for everything that's ailing the United States.

And once the country cures its own illness, the U.S. will be able to "extend its hand in health, in teaching, and in cultivation, so that all new nations will be at least encouraged to go our way, so that they will not wander down the dark alleys of tyranny or to the dead-end streets of collectivism" (95).

Freedom and self-fulfillment for everyone—who can argue with that? Suddenly, everyone peaks out from under the covers and sees hope on the horizon.

Those speechwriters know their stuff.