This week on lectures and history, University of Kansas political communication professor Robert Rowland teaches a class on the 1992 Republican National Convention.

He examined speeches by former President Ronald Reagan and Patrick Buchanan, who had challenged then incumbent president, George

H.W. Bush, for the GOP nomination that year. Professor Roland examines the rhetorical

strategies, themes, and broader political implications of these speeches. More after this.

There are pivot points in American history,

points where after that moment things changed.

Usually those pivot points are events.

9-11 is an obvious example of that.

The Great Recession of 2008 is an obvious example of that.

Once in a while, the pivot point is a work of rhetoric, or in this case,

two works of rhetoric that proposed to the country two options for where we could go. I thought

in the immediate aftermath the country would choose one option, as I'll tell you I was wrong.

August 17th of 1992, conservative commentator, former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, spoke at the Republican National Convention.

So did the greatest hero of conservatism since perhaps Teddy Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, in his last speech before Alzheimer's forces him

to withdraw from public life.

The speeches are important not only for their impact

on the campaign.

I'll talk a little bit about that in a moment,

but also because what they reveal about the way

that rhetoric can influence American democracy.

And now I want to talk a little bit about the role of rhetoric in American democracy

and why it's important and why it's essential that rhetoric meet standards of ethics.

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