Term Paper on "Huckabee Campaign"

Quoted Instructions for "Huckabee Campaign" Assignment:

Please let ***** write this paper. Here are the directions, after the directions im going to put the original essay (with the work cited page) that you need to rewrite/ expand on if you cannot get a primary source please email me and i will send one to you. Finally Please add 1 scholarly article. Again ***** wrote the original paper and I would prefer for him to write this one.

In most cases, the final essay in the first unit will combine the an*****s of the first two essays. You will revise and expand your previous an*****s to build on what you have learned about rhetorical analysis in the unit, and you will also develop your an*****s by drawing upon at least one scholarly article on a related topic. We will work with several sample articles in the unit to give you a sense of how you can deepen and expand your analysis by doing research on rhetorical strategies, party constituencies, and political issues. The last part of the unit includes a class in which you will be introduced to how to find scholarly articles. In that part of the unit we will begin to work with the research strategies that you will continue to develop in the next unit. While the expanded rhetorical analysis will lead right into the next unit, the paper will also serve as the conclusion of the first unit. It will provide you with an opportunity to revise writings that may have been less successful than you had hoped, and that process will provide you with an opportunity to improve a range of writing skills that extend from the mechanics of punctuation to developing arguments with supporting quotes.

Original essay:

INTRODUCTION: The rhetorical situation with Mike Huckabee is very clear: He is a former governor of Arkansas, and also a minister from a conservative Christian genre running for president of the U.S. on the Republican side. His constituency is the conservative wing of the Republican Party, and in particular, he reaches out to so-called *****evangelicals***** (conservative Christians also known as *****fundamentalists***** *****“ and includes the sects referred to as the Pentecostalism and the Charismatic Movements). Therefore, to put his rhetoric into context, he uses the issues that resonate most with the far right wing of the Republican Party, and with the conservative Christian movement, so that he distances himself from the front-runner in the Republican Party*****s presidential campaign, John McCain (known more as a *****moderate***** than a hard-line conservative).

Therefore, the way Huckabee frames his rhetoric is designed to make an emotional appeal to the right wing of the Republican Party, and to the conservative Christian movement. The issues that appeal to the groups Huckabee reaches out to with his rhetoric include: ending legal abortions; preventing the legalization of marriages between same sexes (he supports a constitutional amendment making it illegal for gays to marry); ending federal income taxes; promoting *****faith***** (religion); staying in Iraq and continuing the war; and his most strident rhetoric is directed toward immigration, which will be the focus of this paper. A rhetorical analysis of Huckabee*****s position papers and his speeches reveals that he uses a number of hot-button words and provocative issues to frame his beliefs.

HUCKABEE ON IMMIGRATION: On his campaign website, Huckabee uses the term *****national emergency***** to describe the importance of dealing effectively with the immigration issue. This puts the immigration issue into the context of war, or a terrible crisis, that has the nation teetering on disaster. He uses the phrase *****illegal aliens***** rather than *****undocumented workers***** or *****undocumented immigrants***** because *****illegal***** and *****alien***** are far more powerful themes, allowing Huckabee to get the attention of conservatives more forcefully.

One way Huckabee develops his rhetoric is by framing the immigration problems in the context of terrorists, bringing to mind the horrific attacks on the U.S. in 2001. *****In this age of terror, immigration is not only an economic issue, but also a national security issue,***** he says on his website and in his speeches. *****Those caught trying to enter illegally must be detained, processed, and deported,***** Huckabee insists. By framing the problem in the *****terror***** context, what Huckabee has done with his rhetoric is make undocumented immigrants in the same group as terrorists. He doesn*****t say precisely that, but when a politician uses the phrase *****terror***** the image of Osama bin Laden immediately comes to mind, along with bloody images of the most recent suicide bomber attack in Iraq.

And while Huckabee supports the $3 billion that the Senate has voted on for border security *****“ including a 700-mile high fence, 300 miles of *****vehicle barriers,***** four *****drone***** airplanes, 105 radar and camera towers *****“ he does not sound extremist by doing so. There are many moderate and even liberal American voters who think the 700-mile fence is a good idea. But when Huckabee says that he *****¦will not tolerate employers who hire illegals***** he steps a bit further into radical right-wing rhetoric. He insists that *****employers***** (including the average American who hires a Mexican landscape crew to mow a lawn, trim trees, or clean the house *****“ and doesn*****t demand to see the papers proving those immigrants are *****legal*****) should be *****punished with fines and penalties so large that they see it is not worth the risk.*****

With that statement, Huckabee frames the American employer or homeowner who knowingly or unknowingly hires undocumented workers as criminals. So now the immigrant is a criminal and so is the person (corporate head, farmer, homeowner needing work done around the house) who hires the undocumented immigrant. Huckabee goes on to insist that if he is elected president, he will *****¦take our country back for those who belong here.***** In this framework, he is suggesting that somehow Americans have either given their country away, or the undocumented immigrants have stolen it. He takes the argument to extreme levels with this rhetoric.

Huckabee makes a strong point in his speeches and on his website that he has signed the *****No Amnesty Pledge.***** By signing that pledge, candidate Huckabee has ratcheted up his rhetoric to a level that is not only part of the far right wing of the Republican Party, it is seemingly absurd and logistically impossible. To wit, the *****Americans for Better Immigration***** pledge states *****The 12 million illegal immigrants now here will have to go home.***** Huckabee doesn*****t explain how the federal government is going to round up twelve million Mexicans and other immigrants who are here without authorization, and send them *****home***** *****“ but in a campaign like he is running, getting tough on immigration issues could win him votes with conservative Christians and with the right wing of his party.

Meanwhile, Huckabee supports local political jurisdictions passing laws that punish undocumented immigrants, and he asserts those laws *****protect the economic well-being, physical safety, and quality of life***** for citizens in those communities. By using *****physical safety***** Huckabee frames this issue in the context that immigrants are criminals out to harm people. But the Immigration Policy Center (IPC) (Rumbaut, et al, 2007) reports that *****Foreign-born Mexicans***** had an incarceration rate***** of 0.7% in 2000, *****more than 8 times lower than the 5.9% of native-born males of Mexican descent.***** And while the *****undocumented population has doubled to 12 million since 1994,***** violent crime in the U.S. has declined 34.2%, the IPC reports.

Moreover, according to the American Immigration Law Foundation (Esbenshade, 2007) local ordinances such as the ones Huckabee believes in (that make it illegal to rent to undocumented immigrants, for example) *****“ if they conflict with federal immigration law *****“ are unconstitutional. Why? Because in many cases these local laws *****deny due process rights to renters and landlords.*****

In CONCLUSION, Mike Huckabee has arranged his rhetoric to appeal to the basest instincts of voters *****“ notably voters who are conservative Christians and on the right wing of the conservative movement and GOP. The way in which Huckabee frames his attacks on immigrants seems to be blaming a lot of American ills on this group, but if that gets votes, then it*****s working.

Works Cited

Esbenshade, Jill. *****Division and Dislocation: Regulating Immigration through Local Housing

Ordinances.***** American Immigration Law Foundation. Retrieved 7 February 2008, from

http://www.ailf.org/ipc/special_report/sr_sept07.shtml.

Guidelines for Writing a Rhetorical Analysis. *****The Guidelines.***** Retrieved 6 February 2008

From http://core.ecu.edu/engl/snyderh/1100/raguide.html

Huckabee, Mike. *****Mike Huckabee President: Faith, Family, Freedom. Issues: The Secure

American Plan / Immigration.***** Retrieved 7 February 2008 from

http://www.mikehuckabee.com.

Rumbaut, Ruben G; & Ewing, Walter A. *****The Myth of Immigrant Criminality and the Paradox

Of Assimilation: Incarceration Rates among native and Foreign-Born Men.***** Immigration

Policy Center. Retrieved 7 February 2008 from http://www.alif.org.