The coronavirus pandemic and our nation’s response to it will be a major factor in the 2020 election.
Consider a rhetorically brilliant move from our history: Democrats coined the term “Hoovervilles” to describe the shantytowns that resulted from President Herbert Hoover’s inability to provide relief to thousands of Americans during the Great Depression.
The challenge now for the Democrats and Joe Biden is to use vivid rhetorical images to prevent voters from reelecting President Donald Trump. Part of that strategy might include the use of photos of food lines, bodies being stored in refrigerated trucks and relatives who could not be with their loved ones at the end of life.
Effective use of rhetoric can help voters feel the health and economic pain that Americans now are suffering—realities that Trump denies, ignores, downplays or, to use the president’s favorite pastime, “plays through.”
Richard Cherwitz, Austin
Note from KBJ: Shorter Cherwitz: "We can't win on substance [especially since our candidate is a senile imbecile], so let's try to win with rhetoric." Donald Trump will be re-elected in a landslide.
