Comparing The Speeches Of Ronald Reagan And Mario Cuomo

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Ronald Reagan and Mario Cuomo were both important public political figures for America in the 1980’s. Ronald Reagan delivered a speech at the 1980 Republican National Convention. The purpose of Reagan's speech was to accept his position for the presidency. Mario Cuomo who was the New York governor spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 1984. He spoke to the people at the convention and many say that after hearing his speech they wish had been nominated to run for president. Even though Ronald Reagan and Mario Cuomo disagreed and contradicted most each others opinions they did agree upon the fact that “America is a shining city on a hill”. Mario Cuomo goes into more depth about this statement in his speech. While both of these men saw that there were things that needed to be fixed within America Ronald Reagan was more …show more content…

He approached his speech with a very negative tone. Ronald Reagan focused on what was going to be done to rebuild our country's unity whereas Mario Cuomo only focused on what hadn't been done. Mario Cuomo believed that Reagan was only seeing the good parts of America but was failing to see the suffering that many people were facing. People who can't pay their mortgages, afford an education, and parents have to let their dreams go that they have for their children. In this negative tone throughout his speech, he uses the metaphor that “All the President sees from the veranda of the white house is a shining city”. If Reagan were to go out into the not so shiny communities within the U.S. he would see that the people were hurting. If he were to see a woman that was being denied help she needed to feed her family just because of a tax break or a mistle the U.S. couldn't even afford then he may realize how messed up the country really was. This displays Cuomo’s opposing opinions and negative thoughts on how the U.S. was