Analysis of Bernie Sanders Announcement Speech

Analysis of Bernie Sanders Announcement Speech

Bernie Sanders is a senator from Vermont by being in politics for thirty-plus years, has built a reputation as a politician who has held the same position on the same issues through the time. On May 26, 2015, in Burlington, Vermont, Sanders announced his bid as one of the candidates for Democratic primary election. In my opinion, Senator Sanders presents in politics for such a long time has made him a credible speaker because he has known all of the issues from the inside. I think, the presidential candidate has to be in politics for a while and has to have a good reputation. I like Senator Sanders speech because he was self-confident and passionate, which are characteristics of the effective speaker. His speech was effective because he delivered the main purpose of his campaign clearly, to “build a movement of millions of Americans who are prepared to stand up and fight back” (Bernie’s Announcement). His officially proclaimed his entire election campaign “about the needs of American people” (Bernie’s Announcement). As he continued delivered the speech, he maintained the audience attention on the issues that they were mostly concern about: middle-class disappearance, wages, and jobs. The crowd met with applause and good reaction each of the statements that gave hope for a better future. Also, the response to the speaker was warm because he gave a speech in a city where he was a mayor, and in the state where he was Congressman and is serving as Senator.

In the first few sentences of the speech, Bernie Sanders thanked his supporters, friends, wife, children, and seven grandchildren. His continued to proclaim, “enough is enough” which represent the disappointment that Americans felt after years of incompetence in government, the fall of the middle class, and raise in power of the billionaire class (Bernie’s Announcement). He made it clear that this politic has to be changed in favor of people needs, and he along with the American people could make this changes happen because “this campaign is about the needs of the American people, and the ideas and proposals that effectively address those needs” (Bernie’s Announcement). The main idea of the Bernie Sanders speech was to address the most painful issues such as economic, educational, and environmental. He summarized the main ideas into subtopics during his speech which allowed easily follow his thoughts. Also, Senator Sanders created a powerful effect on his audience by using in the introduction a repetition “today, here in our small state...Today, with your support and the support of millions of people...Today, we stand here and say loudly and clearly...” (Bernie’s Announcement).

Sanders took quite some issues seriously, so it is not surprising that he appeared in front of the audience well prepared and backed up the arguments he made in the speech. He used the appropriate facts and statistic that relating to the issues that he addressed. In terms to income and wealth inequality, Sanders stated how “ninety-nine percent of all new income goes to the top one percent” and that the United States has “the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on Earth” (Bernie’s Announcement). He supported the economic downturn by claiming, “median family income is almost $5,000 less than it was in 1999” (Bernie’s Announcement). Other facts and statistic are mentioned when Sanders climate change, health care, unemployment, creating jobs, political apathy, education, and raising the minimum wage. All of Sanders statements create a reasonable ground to why the particular changes have to be made.

Bernie Sanders conclusion of the speech was pretty much noticeable, too. He wrapped his speech up by telling a short story about his family and himself. By being born in Brooklyn, New York in the family of a Polish immigrant and American woman who only finished New York High School he like no one else knew the struggling of the lower-middle-class families. The claim “I learned, in many, many ways, what lack of money means to a family” made awareness among the audience that this person knew what he was talking about because he experienced the situation that many families have had (Bernie’s Announcement). He continued about his mother’s dream about own beautiful house, which never came true because she passed out young. Sanders finished by emphasizing that dreams come true when people united around the same idea and that had been the time for that. At the end of the speech, Bernie Sanders once again summarized his ideas by repetition.