Paul, Hillary, and Donald Giving Speeches

Last updated on: May 4, 2016 at 5:51 pm by Eric Smith

Paul, Hillary, and Donald Giving Speeches 2016-05-04T11:56:09-06:00 Eric Smith

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This is Rembrandt’s imagining of Paul in prison. Rembrandt didn’t paint any Clintons or Trumps. Image in the public domain, taken from Wikipedia.

By: Anonymous

Where you are when you give a speech is a way to subtly influence (or sometimes not so subtly) what you are saying.

I received my Family Medicine training in St Clair County, Illinois, just east of East St Louis. In St Clair County, there are three malpractice lawyers for every one doctor. At the time of my training, it was the most litigious county in the US. Consequently, then-President George W. Bush came to St Clair County to launch his platform for Tort reform. Arrayed with a multitude of doctors in white coats positioned in a standing, silent testimony behind him, he delivered what could have been a wildly unpopular speech advocating for caps on medical malpractice claims. Instead, it was received positively. I doubt it was his words that made the difference… It was more likely being in that county with those doctors standing behind him that people took away as the actual message, regardless of what he said.

The apostle Paul also knew how to “play to the camera.” Paul, imprisoned in Rome, sends the Ephesians, Phillipians, and Collosians letters entreating them to “stay the course” with Christianity. First scene, closeup of Paul, writes furiously by a meager candle. Pan out to a dark stone room with no furniture save a solid wood desk at which Paul writes. Camera rests on the solid wooden door at the far side of the room. There is a furtive, odd-tempoed knock on the door. Paul pushes the scroll through a gap above the door, which is hanging heavily on its hinges. Next scene, the scroll is being unrolled amongst a small group of Christians, who crowd around the reader. The reader lingers on Philippeans 1:7, “…in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel,” fast cut to another reader in a different house with a different group of Christians reading Colossians 4:3 “Pray….that we may declare the mystery of Christ, for which I am in prison.” Truly, Paul has mastered the ability to make the place of the speech matter as much as what is being said.

This idea isn’t lost on our current political candidates. Here is Hillary at her finest— giving speeches about low income housing while taking a housing tour with low income residents of Harlem. It also includes a clip of Hillary beating the residents at a game of dominoes.

Compare that to Donald Trump’s economic speech a few weeks ago in Syracuse– same state, same economic topic, but a completely different visual image….

While Hillary sits playing dominoes with low income residents to discuss economic reform for the low and middle classes, Trump does it from behind a podium with blue velvet drapery and American Flags behind him. Which location gets the candidate’s message across louder than their words? Somehow I don’t see Donald Trump showing up in Harlem to give a speech about low income economics.

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