Health Care Political Cartoon

The issue of health care reform is said to have emerged as one of the most important topics in the 2008 presidential election. There are several reasons as to why the issue has demanded so much attention and those reasons are undeniable. According to The Commonwealth Fund, which is a private foundation that is working towards a higher performance health system, they say that in 2006 47 million Americans were unemployed. That is 8.6 million more Americans since 2000. Even with information such as this, the majority of the country does not think that neither the Republican nor the Democratic candidates' have come up with a solid solution to solve the health care issues. The visual text displays the, I do not really care attitude, by having both the donkey and the elephant answering the question very nonchalantly.

When the reader originally looks at the picture they may notice how both the donkey and the elephant have boxes drawn around them. The fact that the donkey and the elephant are separated from each other is an example of a compare and contrast paradigm. What is unique about this cartoon is that even though the donkey and the elephant are divided they consequently share an opinion that is very similar to one another's. The idea that they both share the same view is contradictory to the title of the illustration. The title reads, "The differences between the presidential candidates' health care plans", and what the author is saying is that the candidates' plans are not exact but are comparable to each other. Another slight difference between the donkey and the elephant is that the donkey says, "don't get sick" and the elephant says, "don't get sicker". The syntactic difference between the two is that when the donkey says "sick", he is telling us not to get sick which is something we can not control. The elephant on the other hand is saying "sicker" and the key to that word is the "er" which is telling us to not get any sicker than we already are and that is something that is controllable.

The use of a visual text to support and express an opinion is a widely used technique. If it is used intelligently and is able to convey its opinion to the audience it can also be very effective. The political cartoon pictured above shows the views of the Republican and Democratic parties regarding health care plans. With the use of rhetorical appeals such as ethos, pathos, and logos the author communicates to the reader that neither political party really has a firm stance on the issue of what to do about health care.

The author of this visual text uses ethos by having both the donkey and the elephant dressed in nice suits. The fact that the two characters are dressed in suits makes the reader naturally pay more attention to them. As a society we are more inclined to focus on someone or something that is more professional appealing. If the donkey and elephant were dressed in sweatpants and a t-shirt the audience would not tend to believe the political statement as much as if they are in nice and professional suits. The body language of both the donkey and the elephant also reveals the candidates' attitudes towards the health care plan issue. They both are smoking cigar's, have their eye lids closed, have one leg crossed over the other, are leaning to one side, the donkey is whistling and the elephant is yawning. A good looking suit is known to be worn by people who have some amount of wealth, a job that requires them to wear a suit, and by high profile people. If you walked down the sidewalk and the person that passed you on your left was wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt and the person that passes you on your right side was wearing a suit your senses would make you turn your head to the right and look at the person with the suit. People as a whole are more interested in people that are wealthy which is why our eyes are drawn to the person with the suit. The fact that the donkey and elephant are wearing suits can also tell the reader that they are not worried about health care problems because they are financial well off. The donkey and elephant are both politicians and if someone is a politician they are going to have an above average income which allows them to not have to be concerned about health care issues.


Pathos is shown by the way the elephant and the donkey's portray their feelings in the political cartoon. Their facial expressions show what many American people believe how the presidential candidates feel about health care which is they think we are screwed either way. The presidential candidates obviously would not ever say that but because non of them have been able to figure out health care plans yet the American people have no reason to think that anything will change now.

It is ironic that the political cartoon is about health care and the donkey and elephant are smoking cigars. Cigars are obviously harmful to the body and can lead to several different types of cancers and diseases. Some of the types of cancers it can cause are cancer of the mouth, throat, larynx, gullet (esophagus) and lung, and can also lead to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The fact that the donkey and elephant are participating in an act that is harmful to them can lead the reader to believe that they more than likely, do not have to worry about the health care situation.

Logos is the final rhetorical appeal used in the political cartoon. The donkey and the elephant's argument is that they are not sure what to do about health care or they do not know what to do about health care. Their relaxed and laid back personality is trying to make the audience believe that they should not worry about health care anymore. The cartoon is saying that the presidential candidates do not appear to be overly worried about health care so neither should you.

Presidential Candidates

The presidential candidate that i selected is Barack Obama. The issue that Barack Obama has expressed his opinion about that I have chosen to rhetorically break down is the issue of illegal immigration.
Barack Obama uses the rhetorical strategy of "process" when speaking about illegal immigration. Barack Obama says, "I support the idea to add additional personal, infrastructure and technology on the border and at our ports of entry." Barack Obama says that if we do that then it will help preserve the integrity of our borders, which is the second step of the process. The first step was adding additional personal, infrastructure and technology on our border and at our ports of entry and the second part is it will help preserve our borders.
You can also say that Barack Obama used the rhetorical strategy of "cause and effect" when referring to protecting our borders. The cause would be "adding additional personal, infrastructure and technology on the border and at our ports". The effect would be "preserving the integrity of our borders."
Barack Obama used the rhetorical strategy "illustration" when talking about his views on illegal immigration. Barack Obama has "introduced amendments to put greater emphasis on keeping immigrant families together". The illustration comes into play when he makes the move to introduce amendments which show that he truly wants to improve the illegal immigration issue. Another time that Barack Obama uses the rhetorical strategy of "process" is when he is talking about having illegal immigrants come out of the shadows. What he means by that is he wants the illegal immigrants to stop hiding and become a legal American citizen the correct way. The process Barack Obama says that illegal immigrants should go through is to first "fine good standing, undocumented immigrants, then have them learn English, and then go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become a citizen."
Another way that Barack Obama implements the rhetorical strategy of "cause and effect" into his reasons on how to help our illegal immigration problem is to work with Mexico. The way that Barack Obama says that we should do this is by "doing more to improve the economic development in Mexico" which is going to be the cause. The effect of that cause will be a "decrease in illegal immigration." Barack Obama thinks that if the people of the United States of America can help improve the economic development of Mexico then there will be more job opportunities for unemployed people in their own country. The result would be fewer illegal immigrants coming to the United States of America and working for someone illegally up here. It will also prevent legal citizens from having a job taken away from them because an illegal immigrant will agree to work for a lower than minimum wage.
Barack Obama also uses the rhetorical strategy of "description". When he is talking about having increased border patrol he explains what he means by that. Barack Obama says, "strong border enforcement means border surveillance, border patrols. It also means we are tracking who gets visa's and who is overstaying visa's."

Rhetorical Analysis of Commercial

The first rhetorical strategy i noticed in the commercial i chose was pathos. The commercials main purpose, other than to promote their company's cars, was to focus on making their audience laugh. The part where the man in the commercial ends up getting his privates frozen to his car and is unable to disconnect them is supposed to make the audience laugh. Another part during the commercial where humor is used is when the second guy comes into the commercial and is walking to his car he waves to the man who has his junk stuck to his car. The guy with his privates that are frozen to the car nonchalantly waves back to the second guy and acts as if there was nothing wrong.
The rhetorical strategy of cause and effect is also used in this commercial. The car company is trying to convince you that their cars which have hands-free cards which open and start your car without a key is better than owning a car that requires a regular key. The cause is that if your key slot on the driver side door freezes over and you do not have a hands-free card then the effect will be that you will not be able to get into your car.
Another rhetorical strategy used in the commercial is compare and contrast. If you have a car made by Renault then you will not ever have to worry about not being able to get into your car. The contrast is if you have a different car that is not Renault then if you do have a problem getting into your car you will not have a hands-free card to let you in.
The rhetorical strategy of an example is also in the commercial. The example is if you can not get into your car you do not have to worry about it if you have a Renault car with a hands-free card.

Television Commercial

A man who looks like his age is probably somewhere between late 30's to early 40's is the first thing I see when the commercial starts. He is white skinned with short brown hair and is wearing light gray mittens, a metal gray winter jacket, and a white turtleneck that is underneath his metal gray winter jacket. The outside temperature must be very cold because there is snow on the ground and i can hear the crunching sound his feet makes when he walks on the hard packed snow. Another clue that tells me it is cold is that you can see a white mist come out of the man's mouth when he takes a breath. The man walks to the driver side door of his car and pulls out his car key to unlock the door. He makes a grunting noise as he bends down over to unlock the car. He tries to insert the key into the key slot to unlock the door but the key slot is frozen shut. The man jiggles the key trying desperately to unlock the door but is still unable to. His first attempt to unlock the door is by blowing hot air on the key slot but still no luck. Before his second attempt he scans the area to make sure nobody is around and when he decides the coast is clear he unzips his pants and pees on the key slot in hopes that the warm pee will unfreeze the key slot so he will be able to unlock his door. After he is finished taking a piss he tries to back away from the door but comes to find out that his privates are frozen to the car door. As he is trying to pull disconnect himself from the door a man who is walking to his car waves to the man who is an unfortunate situation. The man walking to his car is on the opposite side of the car so he is not able to see what the troubled man is dealing with. The guy with the situation pretends like nothing is wrong and friendly waves back. The man who waves first gets in his car and drives away as the other man continues to try and disconnect himself from his vehicle. Now it has cut to a different screen where the text says "Hands-Free Card Opens and Starts Without a Key". It is a French commercial that is advertising Renault automobiles.