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In his defense speech, Richard Nixon uses logical fallacies all over his speech. To start with, de defines the situation that had been used for his accusation. He defines the money that had been given to him by the supporters in a manner that everyone feels convinced of what he is about to say next.
“It is morally wrong and illegal to benefit from the support of the taxpayers”
This statement makes the hearers get to understand that the talker understands what he is talking about and he does not like or support it (Nixon and Perlstein 64). To make his argument, he framed the stamen.
“If you want proof for use of the fund, we have the audit reports on the same”
The public gains confidence in him and feels that he is very transparent in his words. Despite that Nixon got to convince the audience of his transparency, he never made it obvious how he spent the funds. The main goal of Nixon is hiding alone, and benefit from the public funds but retain the innocent look. He actually succeeded and this was to be seen in his rise to power in the following general elections.
Part 2: visual argument
In 1968, the presidential candidate, Nixon, used his age as a factor in becoming the president of the USA. In his argument, the majority of the country’s population was made up of the young and therefore needed a young leader. In his argument, young people make up the most productive population in the country and so did he. The fallacy was used to lure the young voters to think in favor of the candidate based on his age but not his potential performance (Vleet 33). It was used as a masqueraded argument where even the old were convinced that their children would flourish under the leadership of Nixon.
Fallacies influence the hearer in making the wrong decision about the topic. The hearer is tempted to think that the talker has all the solutions for his or her issues. Fallacies mislead people as they are convinced by the wrong messages. Fallacies remind me of the presidential race between Obama and Romney. Romney used figures to attack Obama instead of showing his strengths in leading the country for a better life.
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