US President Joe Biden ended his speech by remembering and giving importance to major events that took place on January 6, 2021. The US president requested that God bestowed blessings upon the people who advocated for democracy.
Biden used the metaphor, “to stand watch.” This metaphor literally means to stand guarded. In general, Biden urged for Americans to open their eyes to realize the existence of truth. This truth comprises of the general American community becoming witnesses to the violent activities that took place on January 6 last year. Biden also hinted that the potential threats be monitored and alerted on.
A scholar of a presidential rhetoric tends to be attentive to metaphors. According to a scholar, metaphors usually uncover diverse insights, principles, and life lessons the chief executive has in mind, and, in turn, the reflection of the national sentimentality in general.
To See is to Believe
The January 6, 2022 speech that Biden gave was relevant due to the commemoration of the events that took place the same day the previous year. Additionally, the January 2022 speech of the US president was significant due to the visual language elements that were integrated with it.
The January 2022 Biden speech was integrated with an empowering belief on the simple truth. The speech requested the American people to believe what they have seen with their own eyes. Such a situation was a reflection of a long-held philosophical heritage in Western culture putting sight or light as being synonymous with the truth.
A contradictory tradition of this heritage is that power in its real form hides behind closed doors, in the shadow of a conspiracy plan. Former US president, Donald Trump’s adherence to conspiracies was popularly known. As seen, Trump pushed through the Obama “birther lie” and his refusal to extract claim from advocating the Qanon conspiracy plan.
Many members of the party Trump belonged to likewise began to previously doubt the legitimacy of the 2020 election results, in which Trump won as the president. Several members of Trump’s party doubted that the said election’s results were stolen in some way.
In his January 2022 speech, Biden aimed to clean the elements of the body of politics with elements of the truth. Biden was able to complete this task successfully in many ways. Biden commemorated the January 6 events that happened the previous year by the images that the American people witnessed with their own eyes.
Biden described the said events as being comprised of violent actions for attack, investment of an effort to thwart fair election results, and initiation of campaigns to cause a downfall of the American democracy.
Make the January 6, 2021 Events Highly Visualized
To get his message across, Biden inspired the audiences to close their eyes. While eyes were closed, Biden motivated the American public to envision what others have seen that day in January 2021.
Some of the violent activities that took place on January 6, 2021 comprised of mob dragging, stomping, attacking policemen and women, rioters utilizing flagpoles as spears, and the display of confederate flags on the Statuary Hall. There were also some gallows on the Capitol Lawn that have been good for use of the vice president of the United States only, Kamala Harris.
Biden reiterated the general American public to acknowledge violence existed, for the nature of the events that, unfortunately, in existence, too. The US president also inspiringly said that failing to make excuses in attaining the said goal paved the way for Americans to witness what’s true, and not true.
Biden motivated his speech’s audiences to take a look at the Statuary Hall. The Statuary Hall is the chamber in the US capitol from which Biden gave his speech. The statue of Clio is one of the historical landmarks in the Statuary Hall, in addition of the latter being the venue where the violent events of January 6 took place in 2021.
