Capitol Hill Rhetorical Analysis

As American citizens, we have long been subject to the back and forth between the Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill. Since the very beginning, both parties have struggled with each other over power and policy, with us, the citizens, in the middle. With every reelection, a new president along with a political group attempts to establish a new regime of executive, legislative, and judicial power in D.C. Recently, however, with the term of President Obama, Congress has favored a more republican ideology, creating an impassive lawmaking system that is incapable of authorizing effective pieces of legislature. As a result of this inability, the president has made several authoritative decisions, completely bypassing congressional review, to establish a trust between the American people and

The political cartoon promotes the idea that while change is happening in different parts of the country, the administration is failing to reform the areas of political policy that would impact the people positively on a larger scale. As shown in the figure below, this cartoon features the highest peak in North America, once named Mt. McKinley and recently reverted back to its original name, Mt. Denali, compared to Capitol Hill, which features the men and women responsible for no social, economic, or political reform this country severely needs. The peaceful backdrop of Mt. Denali displays the amount of congressional input allotted in this presidential decision, which remains a resounding zero, while the constant overflow of congressional power in D.C., makes for an indecisive and ineffective branch of legislation. This cartoon features a number of bills and programs that the democratic congressmen have lobbied for, but have been unsuccessful in moving past the house and senate floors. Overhead, in all capital letters the words “still called denial” loom over the stark, black and white drawing, most