In the current buildup to the US elections, I cast my mind back to the heady days of 2009 when British TV producer Alan Yentob made a documentary titled Yes We Can! The Lost Art of Oratory. This was a fascinating program where Yentob followed Barack Obama and his political campaign which culminated in his becoming president of the United States. The program explored how Obama was using rhetorical oratory to help him engage the masses. These rhetorical devices hark back to ancient Rome and ancient Greece and left their mark on future public figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Billy Graham, Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, Bill Clinton, and Adolf Hitler.
Boris Johnson, who was granted a four-year scholarship at Oxford to study ancient languages, literature, history, and philosophy, participated in the documentary.
He gave examples of some of the more famous ancient rhetorical devices that were used:
- Anaphora – Repeating the same phrases to emphasize a key point;
- Capitato benevolentiae – Aimed at capturing the goodwill of the audience at the beginning of the speech. For example, Roman historian Livy begins his prologue with a description of his own insignificance against the importance of the Roman people and the history of Rome. By preaching his own humility, and especially by comparing himself to the much greater importance of the Roman people (his audience), he hopes to gain their favor at the start of his oratory.
- Praeteritio – Saying what you’re not going to talk about, and then talking about it: “I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him” – Mark Antony’s words in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.
All of these rhetorical devices are accompanied by the skillful use of the voice, such as rising and falling cadences, tone, pace, and volume, which can produce a kind of musicality that was very popular with Martin Luther King, Billy Graham, and Bill Clinton. The “music” is also accompanied by movement, gestures, and facial expressions, designed to capture the crowds’ attention both live and on television. Hitler was a master at doing these things. His notorious rallies in Nuremberg were orchestrated by his famous German film director Leni Riefenstahl, who always stood behind him shouting directorial instructions for what he should do next.
At the time of seeing Yentob’s program, I was leading workshops about leadership, and I used video clips to demonstrate the techniques that Barack Obama deployed to launch himself into his career as the first Black president of the US. Despite the ingeniousness of all the rhetorical techniques, Obama could not have succeeded without the support of social media. Indeed, he was seen as one of the first political leaders to have reached out to millions of young voters. In 2009, social media was quite new. Nobody could foresee the manipulative nature of the medium that young people would become hooked on.
Rhetoric combined with social media, AI, and more
Fifteen years later, we are living in an entirely different world where rhetoric combined with social media, AI, and digital creativity are being used to manipulate the masses yet again. In the vein of Karl Marx, the media has become the opium of the people. Here in Israel and in the Jewish Diaspora, Jews are steadily becoming the victims of ingeniously orchestrated propaganda, much of which is sponsored by our enemies. The mainstream media also draw upon dubious sources to shape their narratives, which at best are based on half-truths and oftentimes deliberate distortions of the facts. The anti-Israel media lobby is far more powerful than the pro-Israel alternative. For one thing, these ill-intentioned individuals and groups target the young, primarily Gen Z. This has become very evident in the run-up to the American elections. Kamala Harris, though not as intellectually capable as Obama, tries to use quasi-rhetorical techniques to capture the support of her leftist, progressive and w
oke young audiences. She lacks the gravitas of oratory, which Obama studied.
“Eloquence and literary power made President Obama one of the nation’s great orators,” Jeffrey Fleishman of The Los Angeles Times wrote in 2017. “Obama understood the power of words to elicit images and rouse passions in settings from the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, to the banks of the Nile in Cairo,” Fleishman continued.
By contrast, Harris does not reach the same heights. She falls far short of the standards set by Obama during his tenure. At a recent rally, Donald Trump played a range of viral gaffes made by Harris, including the meaningless “significance of the passage of time” statement or quote which she hesitatingly repeated. This was followed by several other cringe-making examples including: “We have the ability to see what can be, unburdened by what has been, and then to make the possible actually happen.”
Harris has become the focus of attention by the skeptics, even from people in her own party. She adds other sayings and epithets, which her critics have termed “a word salad,” meaning words that defy logical interpretation. Her speeches, especially those that are impromptu, are accompanied by cutesy facial expressions and a coy peal of laughter designed to make her look “warm and cuddly.” Her nomination of Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, as her running mate has also incurred many raised eyebrows. Without going into the political machinations of her appointment of him, he has been called a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Harris, when she introduced him, indulged in a bizarre onstage dialogue to bring out the “warm, cuddly, lovable” qualities of her chosen running mate.
There seems to be a trend in Western governments to promote leaders who attract voters through “style” rather than “substance.” In other words, the voting public have become seduced by the “show” that candidates can put on in front of the camera, on our TV screens, and at the massive rallies that the crowds attend.
It appears that a high percentage of leaders who stand for election consult with “spin doctors,” a term that became very popular in the 1980s and ‘90s. Today, spin doctors operate prolifically and in the most sophisticated manner. They use AI and various other creative devices to spice up the candidates’ performance in terms of what they look like, what they say, and how they should say it. All this amounts to a kind of theater, which despite the techno paraphernalia, often dissolves into a façade of smoke and mirrors when it comes to the “how” – the delivery of the vision or promises in actual SMART objectives (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound).
In the case of the Harris campaign, the mainstream media, especially in the US, put every effort into countering the cynicism and ridicule. Talk-show hosts spend an inordinate amount of time with their panels of faux experts who favorably spin and re-spin Harris’s embarrassing performances.
Anyone who watches YouTube and other popular websites will know that algorithms will search out the sites that are frequently visited, and then serve them up to viewers daily. On the one hand, this can serve the interests of aspiring political candidates; but on the other hand, it leaves them open to intense scrutiny and even ridicule. This has happened to Trump many times, and it is now happening to Harris.
Trump has made his fair share of gaffes in front of the camera before, during, and after his presidency. For the most part, the content of what he says is well prepared, and he trots out facts and statistics (particularly economic ones) with aplomb. The problem with Trump is his tendency to “shoot his mouth off before loading his brains” when challenged. His critics also question the veracity of some of the things he comes out with.
I am not a great fan of Benjamin Netanyahu. Nevertheless, I have to give the man full credit for his speech to Congress, which he gave in front of a packed house. There was a lot more substance than style in terms of what he had to say. Netanyahu did not resort to tricks or fancy rhetoric. As he has done in the past, he adopted a show and tell approach. He stuck to the facts and put them on display. He produced witnesses, such as Noa Argamani, one of the kidnapped hostages, whose image had been flashed over TV screens across the globe when she was brutally dragged from Israel on her way to abuse and brutality in the dungeons of Gaza. Fortunately, she was rescued by a courageous group of IDF soldiers. He also introduced Lt. Avichail Reuven, an Ethiopian soldier who ran eight miles on the morning of October 7 to the front lines of Gaza to defend his people; and Master Sgt. Ashraf al-Bahiri, a Bedouin soldier from Rahat who on October 7 neutralized many terrorists while defending his comrades at his military base.
Netanyahu introduced two more soldiers – Lt. Asa Sofer and Lt. Yonatan Ben Hamo, whose heroic stories demonstrated the ferocity of Israel’s efforts to defend the Jewish nation. He said: “My friends, these are the soldiers of Israel – unbowed, undaunted, unafraid.” It was exemplary use of the anaphora – rhetoric that heralded a roar of continuous applause from the house.
What impressed me about Netanyahu’s address was the authenticity and honesty with which his speech had been composed. Although he has been accused of lying in the past by the opposition, these alleged untruths pale into insignificance when compared to the lies being promulgated by the president of the ICJ Judge Nawaf Salam in The Hague, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, and ICJ activist Adila Hassim. Their narratives of the Gaza war are now being endorsed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Catherine Colonna, the independent reviewer of UNRWA’s alleged complicity in the October 7 attacks.
As we live through the current world crisis and looming threats of a major global conflagration, the free world looks to its leaders to focus less on style and more on tachlis, the Yiddish word that means “substance” or “getting down to brass tacks.” This is what Western countries need – leaders who can make decisions, solve problems, and deliver actions that speak louder than clever words. ■
Robert Hersowitz is a South African-born writer, management consultant, and coach who lives in Israel.