Rhetorical Analysis Of Cruz

The final strategic error that Cruz suffered from was non-persuasive pathos. Pathos is employed in order to ignite emotion or feeling in an attempt to rally support. Cruz used effective descriptions and adjectives to employ pathos, but because of a lack of timeliness and empathy his pathos were not persuasive. At the beginning of his Prayer to France, Cruz effectively portrayed support and stood in solidarity with the people of Paris by asking God to, “lift up’, “comfort”, and “be with the people of Paris. However, his moment of silence quickly morphed into a political speech, which destroyed the credibility of the pathos he was using. In terms of timeliness, Cruz weaved emotional pulls with political rhetoric which created loaded political
beliefs that seemed inappropriate and ill-timed. Had Cruz, given a speech employing the same rhetoric not during a time of prayer, his pathos would have been more effective. Prayer is a time for reflection and is an opportunity to comfort others. However, Cruz’s decision to take a moment of prayer and a conversation with God to discuss the evil of ISIS and the attacks plaguing the world, inappropriately forced his political ideology onto any viewer, listener, or audience member.
Had this been a political speech his claims would have been understandable. However, he did not give a political speech, but took the sanctity of prayer and filled it with politically charged rhetoric. During his prayer, he argued that radical Islam, “needs to be called out for what it is and needs to be defeated.” He also said, “we will defeat radical Islamic terrorism.” These are politically loaded arguments and beliefs that when given in the context of a prayer are not persuasive pathos because they are inappropriate within the constraints of offering prayer. Cruz was attempting to provoke solidarity and emotion among the audience. In addition to a lack of timeliness, Cruz used descriptive phrases which were not empathetic to the emotions of the French or the global community. He stood in a church and stated that “as we speak radical Islam’s are beheading and crucifying Christians.” Cruz focused on Christians, which disregarded the non-Chrisitians who lost their lives in the attack. Addtionally, the mention of continued violence immediately following an attack, was offensive and has the potential to upset those who lost family members and love ones. You should not mention more death at a time when millions of people are mourning. This shows Cruz’s clear lack of empathy. It is impossible to provoke persuasive pathos without the empathy to create emotional pulls. Additionally, Cruz ended his speech saying our focus should be on the “unity of the people of America.” However, America was not devastated by the attack. We were not directly impacted by the attacks in a way even comparable to the people of Paris. However, Cruz could only focus on the America people. He clearly lacked the empathy to provide persuasive pathos and truly stand in solidarity with France. Through a lack of timeliness Cruz failed to employ persuasive pathos.
A strategy to improve this weakness would be to separate a time for prayer from a political speech. The Prayer for France could have been an extremely successful political move had he truly shown empathy and sadness towards the people of Paris. Additionally, the rhetoric that Cruz employed would have been very successful in a political speech, however, when used in a time of prayer was simply offensive. The combination of pathos during a time of prayer with political motivated ideology, was inappropriate. Had this moment been a political speech, Cruz would have been more effective in rallying Americans to support a fight against ISIS. Cruz must understand that not every speaking opportunity is a chance to push his political agenda. A moment of respect and encouraging words could even be more effective than political
speech.
Additionally, Cruz needs to improve his empathy which can be solved by remembering the purpose of his speech and the established audience. Cruz began his prayer by defining France as the audience for his prayer. However, by its conclusion, he was only talking about America, clearly shifting his focus to a position that was self-absorbed and American dominated. In order to employ effective pathos, Cruz must employ consistent empathy by remembering the subject of his speech and the audience he is addressing. Cruz should have spent his prayer offering his condolences and showing good will to France. Had he done this Cruz would have looked like a strong leader, who at a time of crisis has the ability to place politics aside and simply lift up and support a devastated nation.
The weakness of Cruz’s stance on Syrian refugees suffers from hasty generalizations, ad hominem attacks, and non-persuasive pathos.
The strategy to address these problems, rests on education, maturity, and timeliness. Cruz must show off his education on the topic by resting on facts and expert opinions, instead of hastily generalized political stances. He must take the opportunity, of sharing his stance on Syrian refugees, by adding to his overall credibility by understanding the current political climate. Most importantly, he must understand and be able to effectively differentiate between radical Islam and the religion of
Islam.
In terms of maturity, Cruz must rise above indirect attacks made against him. He should answer the attacks diplomatically, but should focus on the strengths of his stance, in order to address the perceived weaknesses. The ides of maturity also effects his lack of empathy for the French people. He should have publically addressed those mourning and by doing so establish himself as a leader who can ease pain during a time of crisis, politics aside.
Finally, Cruz must employ timeliness. He needs to understand that separating political rhetoric from a time of prayer is an effective way to garner support for his political campaign. A speech does not need to be political in order to be effective and he must acknowledge this. These strategies in combination will address hasty generalizations, ad hominems, and non-persuasive pathos. If Cruz employs all of my strategies his stance on Syrian refugees, as it pertains to the attacks in Paris, will be more persuasive and effective.