President Bush’s Second Inaugural Address Since President Abraham Lincoln’s famous second inaugural address nearly 150 years ago it has been a long standing tradition for the President’s inaugural address to present a somewhat ambiguous claim for world transformation and diplomacy. President George W. Bush’s second inaugural address is no different. It set forth President Bush’s ambitious vision of the United States’ role in advancing of freedom, liberty, and democracy worldwide “with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world” (para. 7). In order to persuade his audience to adhere to his arguably over ambiguous goal, President Bush uses a rhetoric strategy that blends elements of ethos and pathos with specific word choice to …show more content…

Along with the acceptance of President Bush’s world views is the acceptance of his ideals of freedom as defined in paragraphs 26-28. If the audience does not support his definition of America’s ideals of freedom they will question his motives in making his claim and fail to support it. By far the most important views that the audience must accept are President Bush’s views on religion and the role of God. Because of the numerous references to God and the subtext of the speech being saturated in religion, it is pivotal that the audience’s religious views line up with those of President Bush. Not only is God mentioned several times throughout the text but President Bush presents the role of God as a crucial part in his explanation of why the US should strive to remove tyranny from the earth and spread freedom, liberty, and democracy. In paragraph six Bush states that the US’s proclamation that every person on earth has rights, dignity, and value is because they bear the image of God. He further establishes the importance of God’s role in his claim when he refers to God as “the Author of Liberty.” If the