Ronald Reagan Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Introduction

Ronald Reagan began his political career as a Democrat, and openly declared that Franklin D. Roosevelt was a “true hero” to him. Reagan’s opinions and ideals began to shift to the right during the 1950’s and he fully switched parties and became a Republican in 1962. Early in his political career, he became involved with various political committees with a left-wing alignment, such as the American Veterans Committee. Reagan was hired by General Electric in 1954 to host the General Electric Theater, a weekly television series. He also traveled across the country to give talks to over 200,000 GE employees as a motivational speaker. The speeches, written by Reagan himself, were non-partisan, yet carried a conservative and pro-business

Reagan was an impressive communicator, and was very charismatic. In a study conducted by Mio et al. (2005) of U.S. presidents’ inaugural speeches, Ronald Reagan was ranked as one of the top three charismatic presidents in the twentieth century. Reagan appealed to American’s sense of understanding through his use of metaphors and symbolism that went beyond the words. Two impressive examples include Reagan summoning Gorbachev to “Tear down this wall” and referring to the Soviet Union as the “Evil Empire”(Meese, 1999). Reagan was also an expert at using sentimental imagery to communicate novel ideas (Garrison, 2008). Reagan used this style to reach that sentimental ‘side’ of his followers in no better examples than his “It’s morning in America” and “America, the shining city on a hill” comments (Norquist 1997). Reagan captured the trust and respect of Americans by speaking openly about, and standing by, his convictions. President Reagan was willing to sacrifice his political career in order to seek out and do what he believed to be right. (Garrison, 2008). Reagan had faith in his ideals and requested advisors not mention the political risks of an action when advising (Sloan, 1996). One of, if not the most recognizable acts Reagan’s leadership integrity was when Reagan addressed the nation and took responsibility for the Iran Arms and Contra Aid controversy (Garrison, 2008). Even though he had not authorized the action, he did take responsibility for his administration’s officials. Positive charismatic leaders are seen demonstrating traits such as a socialized power orientation (Howell & Shamir, 2005). Socialized power orientation essentially states that the leader does not delight in their own personal power but instead prefers to share power among and with their staff. (Howell & Shamir, 2005). This goes towards Reagan’s humanistic approach to management.