Needless to say, I went Republican when seeking out examples of repetition in campaign rhetoric. I listened to and read several of John McCain’s speeches on education, where two words stand out: choice and competition.
The “c-words,” as one of the conservative sites affectionately refers to them, are strategically (and not sparingly) sprinkled throughout any of McCain’s (self-proclaimed) “sweeping” dialogues about education. As I’d mentioned in an earlier blog, McCain uses smokescreen techniques—like generalizations, vague language, and repetition—to distract his audience from the fact that he’s thought little about the issue of education as it’s not one of his priorities.
Repetition is certainly effective filler in an otherwise empty conversation. One of McCain’s most repetitive—and least informative—speeches is one that I will call, “I Believe,” as McCain begins every statement in this three minute speech with those very words. This use of anaphora seems to be linked to McCain’s hope that the American electorate will make the subconscious connection that he believes in America, he believes in education—and not make the rational connection that the goal of his rhetorical strategy is to deflect attention away from his lack of any concrete information.
So, it’s I believe, I believe, I believe…then, McCain simply inserts and repeats his buzzwords: choice, competition, and reward. These buzzwords have become synonymous for McCain’s “stance” (if you can justify calling it that) on education. Surely these words are products of the Republican “think tank”—they’ve been proven to be almost unanimously acceptable; after all, what red-blooded ‘Merican dislikes choice and a little healthy competition? McCain believes that more choice, and therefore “more competition in education can only lead to higher quality, lower costs.”
Does this not smack of the corporate world? It seems that McCain has taken a page from the Bush playbook: to run this country like a CEO runs a company. Confirming my suspicions, McCain comes right out and admits that his goal for education is to keep up with “global competition”—to continue to maintain our lead on the world in IT innovations, to continue to supplement the workforce. Aha! There’s McCain’s real stance. There’s where his bread is buttered. There’s where—just kidding.
The bottom line: I do not believe McCain. Do you?
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The words "choice, competition, and reward" sound good, but do they really relate well to the issue of education? I agree with you, that they really don't. The former rhetoric was an equality of education to help bring all children to an level and fair access to learning. Maybe the failure of NCLB is actually setting in since they've revised the rhetoric around education.
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