"Faith in America"

First off, what a fantastic speech! Governor Romney gave the county a rousing concoction of rhetorical delight. For purposes of analysis, I will simply speak of his writing in the three main rhetorical categories: Logos, pathos, and ethos. Logically, the speech was valid and sound – not to mention timely – within and without. Romney began by mentioning the many threats to America’s power in the world, from China’s economy to radical Islam. He ended the speech with the same, preceded by support for the problem and followed by a solution to it.

            Pathos was certainly one of Romney’s strong-suits in this speech. His main appeal to passion and emotion was the idea of again uniting the people of the United States. He appealed to the goodness of the many different religions in America and used that to support his call for tolerance and a restoration of religious freedom – or at least putting a stop to the erosion of political freedom in the U.S. He used phrases like, “I think they underestimate the American people,” and “These are not bases for bases for criticism but rather a test of our tolerance.” He offered a sense of empowerment to his American audience.

            Romney also provided a wealth of ethos, appealing to a number of credible and powerful sources, from the then current president to John Adams and the Founders to President Abraham Lincoln – and the quotes that he used were all excellent support for his argument to re-unify the American people and re-free the America’s religions.