Clinton Speaks with Southern Accent for South Carolina Audience

Politicians like Barack Obama have a long history of pandering to different audiences, by subtly changing their accents. The president has a habit of changing the style and substance of his speeches, depending on whether or not he’s speaking to a white audience, a black audience, or a southern audience. Obviously, this is pretty disingenuous. Changing your speech pattern for different demographics shows that you’re not presenting the audience with your true self. You’re just desperately trying to appear more relatable to a group you have nothing in common with. Even if everything you say is true (fat chance) you’re still lying to them about who you really are.

But Obama isn’t the only politician who’s used this tactic. Illinois native Hillary Clinton was known to put on a southern accent when her husband was governor of Arkansas, an accent which mysteriously disappeared when she arrived at the White House as First Lady. But now, that embarrassing fake accent has returned. When she spoke to a South Carolina audience earlier this week, she couldn’t help but play up her faux speaking abilities.

It makes you wonder how these politicians can get away with this in the internet age, when it’s so easy for people from different backgrounds to see and hear you speak at every engagement. And yet, they keeping getting elected. While their willingness to pander to the American public says a lot about them, it says a lot more about the gullible people who keep voting for them.