Rhetorical Analysis Of Smith's Speech

Throughout her speech, Smith consistently talks about what it means to be an American. She repeatedly brings up the ideals that the founding fathers outline in the Constitution; she is trying to emphasize the point that what many of her colleagues have been doing is un-American. Smith uses words such as “Americanism”, “United States Senator”, and “Constitution” frequently (Smith 1-3). She often brings up the rights of citizens and reiterates how important those rights are to every American. Smith discusses the point that many Senators are abusing their American rights and ignoring the rights of others. Towards the beginning of her speech, she states, “It is strange that we can verbally attack anyone else without restraint and with full protection and yet we hold ourselves above the same type of criticism here on the Senate Floor” (Smith 1). …show more content…
She notes that the Senate will gladly speak their mind about any other American, yet when someone attempts to speak out against the Senate, they are struck down and declared a traitor. Later, she restates this point when she says that the “[freedom of speech] has been so abused by some that it is not exercised by others” (Smith 2). Smith uses these two allegations to accentuate her point that many Senators were acting un-American when they accuse their fellow government members of being traitors. At the beginning of her speech, she uses the phrase “I speak” to start off seven consecutive sentences (Smith