Aristotle view on politics
...but we are cutting the COPS program in America……We are sending money to open firehouses in Iraq, but we’re shutting firehouses in America. The president hasn’t put one nickel into the effort to fix some of our tunnels and bridges… 95% of the containers that come into the ports, right here in Florida are not inspected. Civilians get onto aircrafts, and their luggage is X-rayed, but the cargo hold is not X-rayed.” He created a lot of fear in people but then backed it up with, “Does that make you feel safer in America?…I believe in protecting America first”. In this situation, Kerry made the audience fearful of what Bush has been doing but then brought back confidence to them by restating his plans of he is to do if he is elected. An example of when Bush demonstrated fear backed up by confidence was when he was warning the U.S. about terrorist attacks. “…the enemy only has to be right once.” He than gave and Idea on how to protect the U.S. which showed confidence. “The best way to protect this homeland is to stay on the offensive.” Aristotles definitions of Fear and Confidence are, “Fear is a mental picture of some destructive or painful evil in the future”. An orator of good character had responsibility to warn citizens of an evil/danger especially if he has a policy that can defend or has defended against them.” “Confidence is the picture of the nearness of what keeps us safe and the remoteness of what is terrible”. There fire a political orator can prove the benefit of a future policy idea and thus create confidence in his audience.” I believe that this was true in the situations when the emotions were used. The candidates also used unkindness as an emotion by stating facts or expressing opinions which were degrading to one another. For instance when Kerry said, “…that is not the judgment that a president of the U.S. ought to make….You don’t send troops to war without the body armor they need…..more soldiers are killed... And we don’t have enough troops there.” Bush responded with, “I don’t see how you can lead this country to succeed in Iraq if you say wrong war, wrong place, wrong time”. This situation reflected Aristotle’s meaning of “kindness” and “unkindness” in a debate. He described the usage of it as, “Kindness is helpfulness toward someone in need”. We must be sure to provide facts about our policy or an opponent’s which prove our kindness or their unkindness and prove that they have done so to frame his speech properly or to have overwhelming evidence of his opponents unkindness”. Kerry was showing Bush’s unkindness with his concern for the U.S. troops, while bush responded with a degrading comment to Kerry. Pity, one of the emotions which Aristotle thought should be left in the courtroom, was used once again by both Kerry and Bush. In their opening statements, they showed pity towards the people of Florida, because of the hurricanes. They a...