Harpine's Thoughts about Public Speaking
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Prof. of Communication, Univ. of S. Carolina Aiken. Public Speaking, Debate, Political rhetoric. Truth wins.
Harpine's Thoughts about Public Speaking
5d ago
Let’s zap out one ridiculous election conspiracy theory. All over social media, conservative posters insist that they need to know the election results – the actual count – on election night. If they do not see results on election night, they say, it is because the Democrats are using the time to manufacture votes.
This is indescribably ludicrous. Unfortunately, the conspiracy theory spreads because news reports and real life are not the same.
Final, official vote counts have never been available on election night. Not ever.
Florida, which has one of the most polished election system ..read more
Harpine's Thoughts about Public Speaking
2w ago
Some voters want their candidates to have actual plans. Others don’t seem to care.
During his infamous October 27, 2024 Madison Square Garden rally, presidential candidate Donald Trump promised to excel at foreign affairs. However, he stated no plans, only goals:
“I will end the war in Ukraine, which would’ve never happened if I were president. I will stop the chaos in the Middle East and I will prevent World War III from happening.”
OK, great. We all want that.
But those are only goals. Where are the policies? How would Trump have prevented the Ukraine-Russia war? I’d love to know. How wi ..read more
Harpine's Thoughts about Public Speaking
2w ago
Kamala Harris
Wise speakers adapt to their audience: their listeners’ values, goals, fears, and ambitions. Effective public speaking begins with the audience. Always. Public speaking teachers have taught that for, literally, millennia. Why don’t politicians figure it out? Why doesn’t Kamala Harris figure it out?
Unfortunately, we see Kamala Harris repeating Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign mistakes. As we should recall, Clinton spent much of her campaign pointing out Trump’s association with and appeal to evil people. For example, she ran advertisements linking Trump’s agenda to the K ..read more
Harpine's Thoughts about Public Speaking
1M ago
McKinley Campaign Poster
A lesson from the past: yes, a politician can win elections without preaching hate. During his 1896 Front Porch Campaign against William J. Bryan, future President William McKinley told a crowd:
“I do not teach the doctrine of hate. I prefer the doctrine of hope.”
McKinley mostly stayed at home during his campaign, while hundreds of delegations organized themselves and traveled to Canton, Ohio by train to hear him speak. He addressed them outdoors, often standing on the front porch of his modest two-story frame house. Indeed, for months on end, he spoke to sev ..read more
Harpine's Thoughts about Public Speaking
1M ago
Immigrants at Ellis Island
If you live in the United States, unless you are 100% Native American, you are an immigrant or the descendent of immigrants.
All the Republican talk (and when I say “talk,” I mean “lies”) about the Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio got me to think about my maternal grandparents. I am thinking about them because their lives were so like those of the Haitian immigrants, and the challenges they faced were so similar.
Did Trump Reset the Agenda When He Falsely Accused Haitians of Eating Pets?
My grandfather Michael and grandmother Anna left Ukrain ..read more
Harpine's Thoughts about Public Speaking
1M ago
Donald Trump
During his September 10, 2024 debate with Kamala Harris, brimming with indignation at the latest nonsensical conspiracy theory, Donald Trump complained about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio:
“They're eating the cats. They're eating - they're eating the pets of the people that live there.”
This debate was otherwise a failure for Trump, according to the polls, even in the minds of many Republicans. That is because Harris appeared to be stronger, better prepared, and more articulate. She seized the political agenda. Nevertheless, Trump re-seized the political age ..read more
Harpine's Thoughts about Public Speaking
2M ago
Kamala Harris
The side that sets the agenda usually wins the debate. Debating fellow presidential candidate Donald Trump on September 10, 2024, Vice-President Kamala Harris set the agenda by taking four simple steps.
First, just as the event started, she walked over to Trump’s podium to shake his hand and wish him a good debate. Trump is, of course, notoriously phobic of handshaking. By reaching forward, Harris approached Trump in his own space and established some control over the setting. By politely greeting him (“Kamala Harris. Let’s have a good debate”), Harris exhibited a colle ..read more
Harpine's Thoughts about Public Speaking
2M ago
Kamala Harris
“That’s it,” briefly said Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris when asked to explain her response to Donald Trump’s latest racist comment. Sometimes, a few words say more than a long speech. Racist comments deserve contempt; they never warrant explanation. Public speakers take notice: brevity can say plenty!
Harris Declined to Explain Her Response
Unfortunately, racial and ethnic hatred have long driven Donald Trump’s political life, and, in an August 29, 2024 interview on CNN, correspondent Dana Bash asked Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris wh ..read more
Harpine's Thoughts about Public Speaking
2M ago
Kamala Harris
“We are,” said Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in her August 22, 2024 acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, “the heirs to the greatest democracy in the history of the world.” Harris’ liberal policies emerged from an ideology of constitutional tradition. Harris gathered her progressive policies and grounded them in a tight net of conservative values. Like many liberal speakers before her, Harris called on the United States of America to live by its traditional values, such as freedom, opportunity, and dignity.
People do not rememb ..read more
Harpine's Thoughts about Public Speaking
2M ago
Dirty political talk is as old as politics itself. On the same day that Pete Buttigieg asked American voters to choose “a better politics,” former President Donald Trump boasted that he thrives on the political dark side.
Pete Buttigieg Asked the United States to Choose Dignity
Pete Buttigieg
During his August 21, 2024 Democratic National Convention speech, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg asked the United States of America to upgrade its political talk. He said, “I just don’t believe that America today is in the market for darkness.” Instead, it is time, he told us, to ..read more