Abandonment of genus: The evolution of political rhetoric

Richard Weaver's notion that the forms of argument used by a speaker—genus, similitude, cause and effect, or circumstance‐indicate the speaker's ideology is used to analyze speeches of Jimmy Carter, Lyndon Johnson, and Jane Byrne, mayor of Chicago. Their early rhetoric was characterized by argument from genus, their later rhetoric by less idealistic forms of argument, suggesting that their world view has changed and with it the public's view of their performance.