Collin McClelland

October 6, 2014
INT-375 Module Project #2

For my political speech analysis, I chose a speech from one of the most troubling
times in our nations short history. I chose the first inaugural speech of Franklin D.
Roosevelt. In this speech, he addresses an exhausted nation. She is crippled by the Great
Depression, war is stirring in the after math of WWI in Europe, and the American people
face the highest rate of poverty to date. Here, people are looking to a leader to get them
out of this mess, and FDR certainly delivers a shot to the American publics arm.

In the speech, several instances are seen where he uses the rule of three to
emphasize points he wants to be driven home to the listener. For example, when he states
This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly, he
uses three descriptors to identify the kind of truth he wants himself and the
representatives of the government to speak to the people on this crisis. To tell them that
honesty is paramount to him in this matter and that the people need to know what is
happening. Another use of the rule of three is when he goes on saying, This great
Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper, He uses three positive
things the nation will accomplish to strike in the hearts of the listeners that we as a nation
are going to make it through this.

In perhaps the most famous quote of the entire speech, So, first of all, let me
assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself he uses parallelism
to link a very strong point right from the get go in this speech. By stating fear twice, he is
addressing an utterance that the only thing we must be wary from is our own doubts and
disbelief in ourselves. Here he mentions it in a rhetorical device that has echoed
throughout our history. By using the word fear twice in the same sentence, he is
making the word bring two points together in the speech. He is not only assuring the
nation to be strong and free of doubt, but he is also saying that having this fear of the
future will distract the US from getting out of this problem.

In this portion of the speech, If I read the temper of our people correctly, we now
realize as we have never realized before our interdependence on each other; that we can
not merely take but we must give as well he is not only using a simile to link multiple
things together with as, he is also making a euphemism that we as a nation rely on each
other for success and need each other. By pushing back to the background, for just a
moment, the negative state the nation is in, he mentions a positive attribute we have to
this day as a nation, teamwork. We all as citizens rely and help one another, and during
this speech, FDR is telling the nation we need this now more than ever.

In this speech, FDR uses multiple political rhetorical tools to help a nation, which
was firmly sucker punched to the ground, back on its feet. His speech was the start of his
movement of the New Deal where he made government funded projects to hire
unemployed citizens to update the infrastructure of the nation. Building the interstates

and projects like the Hoover Dam, he managed to bring the country out of the pit it fell
into. This president has to be my favorite president in history. He was stricken with polio,
and yet every speech and public event he attended, he managed to walk on braces to
show the people that if he could beat an illness, the nation could beat her own disease as
well. The use of these tools where needed to bring the idea to America that she isnt done
yet, and she is more than capable of overcoming, as long as we hold in our hearts why we
are the nation that we are. We are America, because we never took the easiest road, but
the one we felt was right. Today, our economy is still in a recession. Looking back to this
speech however gives me the hope that if we set our minds to success, we can achieve the
impossible again and again.