The best proof of the idea that history is a succession of recurring similar events is the Tea Party that bears resemblance to the Boston Tea Party as they share a seemingly common aim: to protest against taxation imposed on citizens. However, the activity of the party has many proponents as well as opponents. “Marc Cooper is the director for Annenberg Digital News at the Annenberg School of communication at USC and is an authentic writer and also a political analyst” (Cooper para. 14). This short description of the author of the article suggests his being efficient and informed about the topic he is discussing. His editorial article under the following title: “Anti-Obama taxpayer tea parties steeped in insanity” was published in the Los Angeles Times on 15th April, 2009. In this article, Cooper’s main aim is to convince his readers that the Tea Party movement is an opposition movement with neither a firm basis nor logical arguments for their stand and protests. Cooper argues that the movement uses false claims addressed to the federal government for its ill intended agenda. The main purpose of Cooper’s article is to throw light on the hypocritical and erring nature of the Tea Parties’ protests by revealing to the audience the nature of “the beef behind today’s protests” (Cooper para. 7). The author’s eloquence and skillful usage of influential rhetorical strategies and his adherence to ethos, pathos, and logos, Aristotle’s appeals, makes the analyzed article a powerful piece of rhetoric. Thus, Copper’s article accomplishes its purpose successfully: the author uses all skills of a journalist and political analyst in “directing the sentiments of [his] readers” against the Tea Party Movement (Meltzer 56).
Since the audience of the Los Angeles Times is rather wide and diverse, including the readers that belong to different age groups, the author pays great attention to the target audience of his article. He does not address it directly but he tries to convince all of them of his rightness. He addresses the older generation, focusing on those readers who follow the changes and major events in political life of the USA, mentioning significant events that took place in the political arena in the past. At the same time, the journalist tries to make an impact on the youth with the help of the use of specific Internet-related terms that are clear for them, like “to burn up your bandwidth” (Cooper para. 1). In addition, the writer makes use of short detailed sentences to avoid misinterpretation and loss of meaning.
Cooper, as a person who earns his living with the help of rhetoric, is evidently aware of the importance of pathos in the art of persuasion. The author’s appeal to the audience’s feelings and emotions is successful due to apt choice of vocabulary. First, Cooper makes use of vocabulary that helps him to show the tension in society. This becomes possible due to such phrases as “The Web is buzzing”, “rash of tea parties” (Cooper para. 1, 9). As for the choice of vocabulary, it also serves the purpose of reflecting the author’s personal point of view. Thus, Cooper does his best to use the editorial to show his “blatant opinion” (Meltzer 56). That is evident due to emotional vocabulary that conveys the author’s irritation provoked by Tea Party Movement and this use of emotionally colored vocabulary creates pathos of the editorial as if the author tried to infect his audience with his feelings. The bright examples of emotionally colored words are “collective insanity”, “chilling” (Cooper para. 4).
One of the brightest rhetorical strategies of the author of the analyzed editorial is the use of words synonymic or related to tea in order to show irony and contempt towards the participants of Tea Parties Movement. Cooper uses such words as “caffeinated” “to throw … a Tea Party”, and “to dump Earl Grey into Santa Monica Bay” (Cooper para. 1, 6, 9). All these phrases show senselessness of the movement and the author makes it the object of derision.
The opening paragraph of the editorial demonstrates the author’s resorting to the rhetorical device of irony. He creates a false impression of the recipe that turns out to be bitter irony that is aimed at the people who want to “throw an anti-Obama Taxpayer Tea Party” (Cooper para. 1). The journalist makes an allusion to Black Helicopter Alert and Obama’s support of “One-World-Government” (Cooper para. 1). He suggests buying a tube of glue and as the author mentions a hobby store at the beginning of the article, a reader might suppose that glue is needed to create something. However, it turns out that glue is needed for a person who wants to throw a Tea Party to sniff. Thereby, Cooper hints at mental instability of the participants of the movement or at their intoxication that is similar to drug intoxication. Politi interprets this idea of Cooper in the same way, he states that Cooper “struggles to understand what on earth all the people who throw ‘an anti-Obama Taxpayer Tea Party’ are smoking” (para. 10).
As for the overall tone of the editorial, it is wrathful and even sarcastic. This can be proven by the above mentioned example of direct insult addressed to the proponents of the Tea Party Movement by comparing them to drug addicts. However, the author goes even further, he claims that those people who support the movement are insane. This is first shown in the title of the article: “Anti-Obama Taxpayer Tea Parties steeped in insanity”. The use of the word “steep” shows that the situation is dangerous and even chronic already. The author is successful in his attempt to show his rage as one of the proponents of the movement calls his editorial “insulting” (Hillyer para. 1).
Still, pathos is not enough to sound persuasive. It is necessary to appeal to those readers, who are skeptical. This requires the use of logos, one of three main appeals formulated by Aristotle. In order to use reasoning for those readers who tend to question what they hear, Cooper resorts to the use of allusions to the past events that took place on the political arena of American society in the near past. He draws a parallel or compares the current movement with senseless events “when a $19.95 video proving Bill Clinton was a sort of serial killer went viral” and when they made an attempt to revive “the long-brain-dead Terri Schiavo” (Cooper para. 4).
The author makes use of figurative language to show his ideas, to sustain the reader’s attention, and to sound persuasive. He attracts our attention to the main claim of the article with the help of “the mixed metaphor”, as he himself identifies it: “what’s the beef behind today’s protests” (Cooper para. 7). As soon as he poses the question, he gives an answer to it himself, that there is no sense in the movement. He also makes use of epithets, such as, for example, “outraged, simply infuriated”, “drunken spending” (Cooper para. 9, 10).
As for the structure of the editorial, it also deserves attention as it makes a significant contribution to the rhetoric of the article enabling it to fulfill its main purpose. The opening passage has been mentioned above and the recipe it contains is a very original and thought-provoking beginning of the article. Further, the idea is enforced by the references to past events and the question about beef behind the protests is put in the middle of the article. This is a perfect choice from the point of view of rhetoric as the reader is aware of the author’s view and informed about the situation already. This is why the question makes him/her think about it. Finally, the last paragraph tells us about the politics of Bush and hypocritical attitude of conservatives to it. The final sentence of the article leaves the question unsettled, it gives a reader food for reflection, stating that “bailouts were also initiated by Bush” (Cooper para. 10).
The rhetorical analysis of Cooper’s editorial has proved that the author is an “authentic writer”. The main purpose of showing erroneous and unsubstantiated nature and goals of the Tea Party Movement is proven with the help of logos created with the help of references to the past political experience. However, the article successfully appeals to pathos as it conveys the author’s emotions and it makes a reader think about it. The fact that the style of the article and its manner of presentation will not leave any reader indifferent is the best proof of its succeeding in being a good piece of rhetoric.
Works Cited
Cooper, Mark. “Anti-Obama Taxpayer Tea Parties steeped in insanity.” Los Angeles Times. 2009. Web.
Hillyer, Quin. “I Sniffed Marc Cooper’s Column.” American Spectator. 2009. Web.
Meltzer, Kimberly. Newspaper Endorsements of Political Candidates: Do the Perceptions of Editorial Board Members and Readers Match? The annual meeting of the International Communication Association, New Orleans Sheraton, New Orleans, LA, 2004.
Politi, Daniel. “Stressing over Stress Test.” Slate. 2009. Web.