A Time For Choosing Speech Analysis

On the 27th of October in 1964, Ronald Reagan gave a speech called “A Time for Choosing” on behalf of Barry Goldwater. His speech was so popular that it is also known as “The Speech”. Afterwards, Ronald Reagan ,also known as The Great Communicator, was thought of by many people as a great political speaker. This speech was given to endorse the Goldwater campaign, even though Goldwater lost the election. The Speech launched Reagan’s political career into action and he later went on to be the Californian governor and President of the United States. Reagan used passion, logic, and his great reputation to build up his and Goldwater’s careers.
Before Reagan’s political career began he was an actor. Reagan became intrigued by politics after he

In “A Time for Choosing”, Reagan states, “There can be no real peace while one American is dying some place in the world for the rest of us.” Reagan gives the reader a sense of sadness when he says this, this is pathos. When Reagan wrote this speech he included pathos to grab the reader’s attention and when he used this analogy he made the reader contemplate his statement. Reagan’s ethics were very creditable, so he uses ethos. He stated,”Well I’d like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There’s only an up or down: man’s old --old aged dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism.” This shows his ethics and the passion he has when he presents his speech. Reagan stated,”Today, 37 cents out of every dollar earned in the country is the tax collector’s share,” He also included,”We’ve raised our debt limit three times in the last twelve months, and now our national debt is one and a half times bigger than all the combined debts of all the nations of the world.” Reagan shows us that he knows about the numbers and logistics of our nation which is logos. Since he knows specific numbers, more people will listen to what he is trying to