Passion that is not anger

Sen. Tim Scott’s full statement on Trump's impeachment trial.


Double click to enlarge.

Very striking. I accept his argument anyway. What is striking to me is the rhetorical effectiveness and delivery. Calm, clear argument, lightly seasoned with relatively indisputable facts. The cadence of a black church sermon. The comfortable introduction of religious metaphors that actually illustrate the point being made.

I have noticed Scott's seeming political effectiveness in getting things done but never particularly focused on him and I don't think I have ever heard him deliver a speech.

This was delightfully refreshing. So many speeches are delivered in anger as if that were the closest the politician could get to passion. Scott comes across as passionate but not angry. He constructs an argument. It is a persuasive argument. It is an argument mostly in the vernacular that virtually anyone can understand and summarize.

Given the rhetorical effectiveness, the comfort with religious metaphors, the church cadences, I wondered whether Scott ever attended seminary or had some sort of religious upbringing. I am not seeing it in his Wikipedia entry. No seminary. No church leadership role described where he might have learned to be such a gifted speaker. But I do see a fantastic American story.

Scott was born in North Charleston, South Carolina, a son of Frances, a nursing assistant, and Ben Scott, Sr. His parents were divorced when he was 7. He grew up in working class poverty with his mother working 16-hour days to support her family, including Tim's brothers. His older brother is a sergeant major in the U.S. Army. Scott's younger brother is a U.S. Air Force colonel.

Wow - She must be proud.

Finally I notice where he went to school. Charleston Southern University. A university closely associated with the Baptists. And there are a lot of gifted Baptist oraticians. So, not seminary but maybe exposure to gifted sermons.

We need more political leaders like this.