Allen Al-Rayes
Professor Werry
RWS 200
14 March 2016
Deceptive Persuasion
With politics there always comes the good and the bad. It is a topic that some do not realize can be very deceiving, as politicians want to appeal to the body and earn votes however possible. Now I am not saying this is always the case, but with George Wallace all you can think, while reading his inaugural speech, is how demagogic his speech and approach really is. During a time where the civil rights movement was reaching its peak, Wallace was elected governor of the state of Alabama, and with this came his attempt at preventing the civil rights movement from furthering its success. His famous quote from this speech was, “Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever,” (Wallace). Wallace really attacks the federal government in his speech and uses God as a means of positivity for the people listening to his speech. Wallace strategically uses demagoguery to persuade the people of Alabama and the southerners in general to side with him. Demagoguery, as described to us by Patricia Roberts Miller, an author who gives us the two pieces, “Some Characteristics of Demagoguery” and “Democracy, Demagoguery, and Critical Rhetoric”, is basically a form of persuasion used by many politicians where they will propose two options, their “flawless” idea and the outrageously ridiculous sounding idea of the others, or out-group. Roberts Miller also describes demagoguery as a political strategy for obtaining and gaining political power by appealing to the popular prejudices, emotions, fears and expectations of the public—typically via impassioned rhetoric and propaganda, and often using nationalist or populist themes. A few main styles of demagoguery are, polarization, scapegoating, demonizing, and God and Devil terms. Most politicians typical use polarization to separate 2 groups, the in-group and the out-group. As I set out to analyze Wallace’s use of demagoguery, I will use Miller’s pieces on demagoguery to help me thoroughly analyze the inaugural speech made by Wallace and his use of demagoguery. With this essay I will be showing how Wallace uses demagoguery in his speech through a few characteristics of demagoguery which are, polarization, scapegoating and God and Devil terms, in addition I will also pick out a fallacy, false dilemma, in Wallace’s speech. In addition to all the demagogic tactics I will describe how affective Wallace’s speech was.
Demagoguery flows all throughout Wallace’s speech, but to me the biggest use of it was polarization. This technique is used to divide two groups the in-group (good) and the out-group (bad), where the in-group is placed on a higher pedestal, and the out-group is demonized. In terms of the speech, the in-group is the southerners and the out-group is actually the federal government and the black people. Wallace puts down the liberal government on multiple occasions, like when he says, “ The liberals’ theory that poverty, discrimination and lack of opportunity is the cause of communism is a false theory,” (Wallace). Here we see Wallace singling out the liberals’ by shooting down their theory of communism and making them sound ridiculous. The use of polarization here is fairly subtle but affective because Wallace makes the out-group in this situation seem like they are wrong because they don’t follow his ways. Wallace proceeds to put Southerners above all by explaining how the liberals’ were wrong in their theory and explaining how the southerners were victims who fought back and persevered. A simple example of how Wallace portrays the in-group, southerners, is when he says, “Alabama has been blessed by God as few states in this Union have been blessed,” (Wallace). Wallace specifically uses Alabama as a better state simply because it is blessed by God, which to the people of the state sounds wonderful because God is good to them. Wallace is constantly praising and complimenting the south and specifically Alabama throughout his speech and at the same time pointing out how flawed the government is. Wallace takes another shot at the government when he says, “This nation was never meant to be a unit of one but a united of the many. That is the exact reason our freedom loving forefathers established the states, so as to divide the rights and powers among the states, insuring that no central power could gain master government control,” (Wallace). Here he goes back to the forefathers and founders of the states, which have high praise amongst the people of the south, and makes claims to show how government rule is not the answer. Having a strong, single governmental power is not the answer, but in fact freedom and division of power amongst the states is what the forefathers wanted, and to the people listening to this sounds right and helps put the thought of being against the liberals’ in their minds. A very effective use of in-group was when Wallace mentioned all the great southerners that rose to the top by saying, “We remind all within hearing of this Southland that a Southerner, Peyton Randolph, presided over the Continental Congress in our nation’s beginning, that a Southerner, Thomas Jefferson, wrote the Declaration of Independence, that a Southerner, George Washington, is the Father of our country,” (Wallace). The line continues with references to other big names such as James Madison, George Mason, and Patrick Henry. Wallace gives more high praise to the south by naming off these important figures that came out of the south, in an attempt to get people of the south behind him to follow the in-group and their ideas versus the out-group and how they are wrong because they don’t follow him and the views he provides. I think Wallace definitely used this form of demagoguery affectively because he demonized the out-group heavily and really put made the in-group seem like the only answer.
Throughout Wallace’s piece you see the use of polarization quite a bit, and another tactic of demagoguery that he uses is scapegoating, but with this tactic it is used significantly less. I was able to find a couple forms of scapegoating throughout the speech, where Wallace puts the blame on the government for why things are going wrong in America with the civil rights movement. Wallace puts blame on the government for the school riots in Washington D.C. when he says, “The Washington D.C. school riot report is disgusting and revealing. We will not sacrifice our children to any such type school system, and you can write that down. The federal troops in Mississippi could be better used guarding the safety of the citizens of Washington D.C., where it is even unsafe to walk or go to a ballgame, and that is the nation’s capitol,” (Wallace). Wallace does not use the method of scapegoating too much in his speech but here he slightly does, putting blame on the government for the state of Washington D.C. not being safe and having a riot breakout at a school located at the nation’s capitol. This method just makes the government look bad in the eyes of the southerners listening to Wallace’s speech giving the in-group more leverage over the out-group. Wallace also uses this method early in his speech to set the stage for the in-group and out-group. As I stated before, Wallace did not use this method much, but I felt the use of it was pretty effective, but at the same time could have been used more effectively to really put down the government early on his speech.
Another method used by Wallace, this one seen a lot more than the last one, scapegoating, was God terms. Throughout the speech Wallace uses the word God nearly 30 times. This is a big deal because most southerners are very religious and have strong faith in God, so Wallace used that to his advantage with this demagogic tactic. Wallace makes a claim about the government having too much power and how that destroys our faith with God when he says, “We are forced with an idea that if a centralized government assume enough authority, enough power over its people, that it can provide a utopian life…will produce only ‘good,’ and it shall be our father and our God. It is an idea of government that encourages our fears and destroys our faith, for where there is faith, there is no fear, and where there is fear, there is no faith,” (Wallace). In an attempt to once again bash the out-group, Wallace brings up the topic of faith and God, which to the people of the south has strong meaning. He tells us how a government with too much power and control will destroy our faith. A strong method used by Wallace because nothing will persuade a religious person more than talks about God and how the out-group is basically the devil in this case. Another claim made by Wallace brings the Great American Dream into it when he says, “We intend to renew our faith as God-fearing men, not government-fearing men nor any other kind of fearing-men. We intend to roll up our sleeves and pitch in to develop this full bounty God has given us, to live full and useful lives and in absolute freedom from all fear. Then can we enjoy the full richness of the Great American Dream,” (Wallace). Again we are brought back to the topic of fear and the government. No one wants to be in fear and Wallace describes the government as a power that makes us live in fear, but by using the term God and the Great American Dream, Wallace is turning people against the government and getting them to back him because he puts God on his side, the in-group and to the people of the south God and faith is strong with them. Wallace constantly uses the government and God together but in a way that the government is the devil that is against the people and we see that throughout the speech. Wallace brings a big name into play when he says, “As Thomas Jefferson said, ‘The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time; no King holds the right of liberty in his hands.’ Nor does any ruler in American government,” (Wallace). As evil as Wallace sounds for being pro-segregation and attacking the government, he is very clever with how he goes about doing it with demagoguery. To put people against the government even more, Wallace uses an important figure in many peoples eyes and at the same time uses a God term to show that God gave us our freedom and liberty and that no government power should have that power over us. Again a very effective use of God terms because it attacks the out-group and makes the southerners realize that they do not want one specific power controlling their God given liberty and rights. I felt that Wallace definitely used the God and devil terms very effectively because with the people in the south this is a big deal, due to their religious backgrounds and strong faith. Wallace appealed to the people and definitely made the government, out-group, seem like a devil in comparison to his views.
As effective as Wallace’s speech might have been, there were definitely some fallacies that appeared. One in particular that I noticed was false dilemma. This fallacy is fairly common and Wallace really used it a lot. False dilemma is when you only provide two options to an issue, the good and the bad, nothing else. This is usually a rough argumentative strategy because it has too much flaw. Leaving no middle ground for an issue and strictly setting two options, the good and the bad, is just not effective because it tends to be oversimplifying. One example of this fallacy being used is when Wallace says, “We do this with the clear and solemn knowledge that such physical evidence is evidently a direct violation of the logic of that Supreme Court in Washington D.C., and if they or their spokesmen in this state wish to term this defiance, I say then let them make the most of it,” (Wallace). Here Wallace gives two options on the issue of placing the sign of “In God We Trust” on the State Capitol, and the only options are either to side with him or not. Wallace basically tells Washington D.C. or the government that they can side with him or make the most of not siding with him, which is a false dilemma. Wallace makes the option of siding with him sound like the only right option because the other option would not work out so well for the people who chose it.
All in all, Wallace has a fairly well structured speech and uses demagoguery very effectively, but when one looks at this speech in this day and age it is disturbing to see someone with such wrong intentions, being against the civil rights movement, have such a strong argument and successfully use demagoguery. I think this just shows us to truly analyze politicians and puts our minds to work because demagoguery is meant to persuade people but not necessarily in the right ways. As we continue to listen to political debates we should keep demagoguery in the back of our heads because it is definitely used by politicians and sometimes very effectively.
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