In this article David R. Mayhew is addressing is if congress members are singleminded seekers for re-election. He uses three categories advertising, credit claiming and position-taking to support his argument. Advertising is used to “create a favorable image but in messages having little or no issue content.” The reason advertising is important because many people do not inform themselves about political matters. This makes any recognition influential to voters. He states, “recognition carries a positive valence; to be perceived at all is to be perceived favorably.” Credit claiming is a congressman claiming association with accomplishments that have helped the people so the people will re-elect him. Position-taking is the congressman taking an opinion on a political matter of interest to the people. Mayhew uses these three points advertising, credit claiming and position-taking as the basis for his argument. …show more content…
Mayhew effectively conveys his opinion by casting a negative light upon the congressmen uses of advertising, credit claiming and position-taking to promote themselves politically. This is done by using negative language in statements such as, “Once again there is a variance problem; congressmen do not differ very much among themselves in the methods the use or the skills they display in attuning themselves to their diverse constituencies. All of them, after all, are professional politicians…” This achieves Mayhew goal and causes the audience to think the congressmen colluding to deceive the people for the personal gain of political power. The weaknesses are his observations are too broad because everyday people have to use the same techniques to promote themselves in day-to-day life such as in scholarships for school and interviews and resumes for