10 Examples of Political Speech

The political speech Is the set of statements pronounced for the purpose of establishing a position on a public issue, influencing ideologically in the audience and give an opinion regarding a problem that affects the interests of a community. It's a locutionary act which is carried out within the framework of political power in all its dimensions. For example: Dear friends, today I come to expose my proposals and the actions that we are going to undertake if you give me your support and I win the presidential elections..

East type of speech pays close attention to detail and clarity of wording, as it is intended to to persuade to a group of people whose number may vary and has a political strategy behind it that supports it. It also seeks to avoid ambiguity and direct the listeners' thinking.

Political speeches affect social structures because an effective one can make many citizens transform their way of thinking, which will influence political decisions or opinion public. For example:

Today we are gathered here in front of the Parliament of our nation to demand that the leaders stop the project that will increase taxes on the family basket. We demand that they think of the most needy families and stop corruption.

There are writers who specialize in writing political speeches. These establish the phrases, the length and the referents according to the place where they will be enunciated, the type of audience that will listen to them, the agenda of most relevant topics for the politician and other variants that build the public reputation of an individual, a party or a phenomenon within the framework political.

• See also: speech types

Characteristics of political discourse

Political speeches seek specific objectives, therefore, they have characteristics that make them effective and that must be taken into account every time they are made. These also take into account other metaverbal aspects that can give them more strength, such as tonality. of the voice with which they are pronounced, the silences, the gestures, the posture of the one who announces them, among others.

Based on this, the argumentative discourse is:

• argumentative. You must explain the ideas you postulate in a structured manner and with reasons that are difficult to refute, since, based on these reasoning and the way in which these are imparted, will the audience come to deduce that it was wrong before and change its mind. mindset.
• Goal. It must have specific purposes. A political speech is distinguished by proposing a thesis and a set of ideas that are to be positioned within the public.
• Persuasive. It must be as convincing as possible based on the tools it uses so that the public agrees and adheres to the ideas expressed by the politician or the person who is speaking.
• Effective. It must be convincing. One of the purposes of these speeches is that what is wanted to be exposed is taken as the truth and that no one doubt what is being called into question, whether it is seeking to modify an ideology or call for action.

Examples of political speeches:

1. Fragment of the speech "Tear down this wall" by Ronald Regan, former president of the United States, in Berlin in 1987 

We American presidents came to Berlin because it is our duty to speak, in this place, of freedom. But I must confess that here we are also attracted to other things. For the sense of history in this city, more than five hundred years older than our own nation; for the beauty of Grunewald and Tiergarten; above all, for his courage and determination. Perhaps composer Paul Lincke understood something about American presidents. You see, like so many presidents before me, I come here today because wherever I go, whatever I do: Ich hab noch einen Koffer In Berlin.

1. Speech excerpt from Lyndon B. Johnson, former President of the United States, in 1965 on Capitol Hill 

I urge all members of both parties, Americans of all faiths and colors, from all sections of this country, to join me in that cause.

Sometimes history and destiny meet in a single moment in a single place to shape a turning point in man's never-ending quest for freedom. So it was in Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago in Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma, Alabama.

1. Fragment of the speech "I have a dream" of the American politician Martin Luther King in 1963

We have come to our nation's capital in a sense to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and of the Declaration of Independence, they signed a promissory note that every American was to be inheritor. This document was the promise that all men—yes, black men and black men too whites—would be guaranteed the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

1. Excerpt from the “Freedom or Death” speech by Emmeline Pankhurst, a major leader in the movement that helped win the right to vote for women in Britain.

I am here as a soldier who has temporarily left the battlefield to explain—it seems strange that it should be explained—what civil war is like when it is waged by women. I'm not just here as a soldier temporarily absent from the field in battle; I am here, and that, I think, is the strangest part of my coming. I am here as a person who, according to the courts of justice of my country, has decided, has no value for the community; and I am tried for my life as a dangerous person, under sentence of penal servitude in a convict prison.

1. Fragment of a speech by Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of Great Britain, in 1980 at the meeting of the Conservative Party on her mandate.

In its first seventeen months, this administration has laid the groundwork for recovery. We have embarked on a heavy burden of legislation, a burden we do not intend to repeat because we do not share the socialist fantasy that achievement is measured by the number of laws you pass. But there was a formidable barricade of obstacles that we had to sweep aside. To begin with, in his first budget Geoffrey Howe began to rest incentives to stimulate the skills and inventive genius of our people. Prosperity does not come from big conferences of economists, but from countless acts of personal self-confidence and self-sufficiency.

1. Speech excerpt from Franklin D. Roosevelt, former President of the United States, in 1933

President Hoover, Mr. Chief Justice, my friends:

This is a day of national consecration. And I am sure that on this day my fellow Americans hope that, at my induction into the presidency, I address them with a candor and a decision that the current situation of our people drives. This is pre-eminently the time to tell the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor do we need to shy away from honestly facing the conditions in our country today. This great nation will endure, as it has endured, it will revive and prosper.

1. Excerpt from a speech by Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa, in 1964.

To begin with, I want to say that the suggestion that the struggle in South Africa is under the influence of foreigners or communists is totally wrong. I have done everything I have done because of my experience in South Africa and my own proudly felt African heritage, and not because of what any outsider might have said. In my youth in the Transkei I listened to the elders of my tribe tell stories of the old days. Among the stories they told me were those of the wars waged by our ancestors in defense of the fatherland. The names of Dingane and Bambata, Hintsa and Makana, Squngthi and Dalasile, Moshoeshoe and Sekhukhuni, were praised as the glory of the entire African nation. I hoped then that life might offer me the opportunity to serve my people and make my own humble contribution to their fight for freedom.

1. Fragment of speech given by John F Kennedy, former president of the United States, in 1961

To those new states whom we welcome into the ranks of the free, we pledge our word of that a form of colonial control will not have simply passed away to be replaced by a much more iron We will not always expect them to support our opinion. But we will always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom and remembering that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.

1. Fragment of Charles de Gaulle, former president of France, in 1940 given by radio network

This war is not limited to our unfortunate country. The outcome of the fighting has not been decided by the Battle of France. This is a world war. Mistakes have been made, there have been delays and untold suffering, but the fact is that everything we need to crush our enemies one day still exists in the world. Today we are crushed under the weight of the mechanized force thrown at us, but we can still look to a future where an even greater mechanized force will bring us victory. The fate of the world is at stake.

1. Fragment of the speech of Jorge Eliecer Gaitán, Colombian politician, in 1946

Our movement is a struggle of men who want to redeem themselves and have the strength to do so. Because we feel capable for that fight; because we have no hatred; Because we personally respect our adversaries and those who do not think like us, we are and want to be in a battle with a national profile. Our fight is peaceful. We have the concept that life is a quarry and that the stone of that quarry is not transformed into a cathedral or a statue, but rather with the chisels of passion and will! Men of passion: men who still believe in the strong, vigorous and fearless Colombian. Ahead! People!: for the moral restoration of Colombia, charge! People!: for democracy, charge! People!: For victory, charge!

Follow with:

• argumentative speech
• business speech
• aesthetic discourse
• political clientelism
• Argumentative text