The Rhetoric of Reputation

Ron Paul, Republican candidate for the 2008 U.S. presidential elections, has sparked a new-wave revolution with his libertarian ideals and strict interpretations of the United States Constitution. According to the Libertarian party’s homepage, they favor “a free-market economy and the abundance and prosperity it brings; a dedication to civil liberties and personal freedom that marks this country above all others; and a foreign policy of non-intervention, peace, and free trade as prescribed by America's founders.” Unexpectedly, Dr. Paul has gained heaps of support, especially from young libertarians. According to national newspapers such as US News and USA Today, Ron Paul owes much of his campaigning success to the internet and its viral marketing techniques and various blog postings. He has very strong online support and according to measurements done by Hitwise, Alexia and Technarati, he is the top presidential candidate internet search. USA Today refers to Ron Paul as “an online natural” and says his online success can be contributed to the fact that “Libertarians love the web.” In addition, he has several times more youtube subscribers than any other presidential candidate.

One video that appears on youtube in support of Ron Paul entitled “America is in Distress” places various political images to the song, Guerilla Radio, by Rage Against the Machine.

The video was created by Edward An , a blogger and videographer from Dallas, TX. Edward An created the video simply as a viral marketing technique and even states that “this is an unofficial video to increase public awareness of Dr. Ron Paul and his message of liberty and freedom.” The video uses both animated and non-animated visuals. The animated images it uses are very satirical and making bold arguments; for example, the portrayal of President Bush and his cabinet. The non-animated images he uses are clips from news casts and cspan, images from 9/11 and the iraq war, supporters rallying in support of Ron Paul, and clips of interviews and debates with Ron Paul. Pathos is the dominating rhetorical technique used in this Ron Paul promotional video to convinve the argument to get out and "join the revolution", support Ron Paul and get out there and vote. While the video has a very strong pathos appeal, it significantly lacks in logos because it shows no solid statistics or reasonable evidence. It makes its entire argument through the visuals shown and the lyrics and music in Guerilla Radio.

An doesn’t have much credibility except that he identifies himself as a Libertarian and huge supporter of Ron Paul and the ideals surrounding his campaign. The video has no conservative professionalism behind it and somewhat lacks ethos techniques; when asked, An said it was made “just for fun.” According to An, the video was created to not only increase awareness of Ron Paul but to also encourage others to get out there in support of Ron Paul and help spread the message even farther, using the tagline of the Guerilla Radio song which says “it has to start somewhere; it has to start sometime; what better place than here; what better time than now.” The video is intended for a young-adult audience that has become frustrated with recent political endeavors. The lyrics and music of Rage Against the machine can be offensive and bold if geared towards too young or too old of an audience. An is also obviously trying to reach potential voters and supporters of Ron Paul. The video comes off very strong and makes very bold and loud arguments—some people could easily be turned off by the candor of the visual and audio arguments in the video. To avoid viewer infuriation, An does place a disclaimer at the beginning of the video stating it contains potentially offensive images and language and viewer discretion is advised. While the video does in fact make very strong persuasive arguments they could be offensive to some viewers and thus have an adverse affect on one’s feelings towards Ron Paul, but it also makes for an affective argument and succeeds at its purpose of distribution.