Rhetorical Analysis Of Bernie Sanders's Speech

On July 12, Bernie Sanders endorsed Hilary Clinton as the Democratic Party Presidential Nominee. By endorsing his former running mate, Sanders utilizes rhetoric to convince his voters to vote for Hillary Clinton for President. He evokes ethos, pathos, and logos. He stresses pathos to convince his voters that his opponent is worthy of their trust. Furthermore, his use of logos helps to prove the credibility of Hillary Clinton. Additionally, Sanders employs ROADS to prove his point and convince his audience of what he believes is the right thing to do in the upcoming election. Overall, Bernie Sanders merges logos and pathos to construct an effective rhetorical argument to convince undecided voters, as well as his own followers to vote for the
Before he speaks a word, Bernie Sanders establishes intrinsic ethos. He is currently serving his second term as a US senator, and was a House representative for 16 years. This tenure makes him the longest serving independent. This history as a politician gives him credibility, because he appeals to those who like experienced politicians and also appeals to people who like proclaimed government “outsiders”. Furthermore, Bernie Sanders establishes credibility with the “13 million Americans” that voted for him during the Democratic primaries. Additionally, he also speaks about the 2.5 million small contributions that funded his campaign. This strategy of sharing statistics, both establishes credibility and serves to convince undecided voters to vote according to his advice. Sanders reminds people of the “primaries and caucuses in 22 states” that he won with the help of his voters. The statistic helps testify to the strength and impact voters can have when they work together. This strategy helps even the voters who didn’t vote for Bernie Sanders, because it convinces them to get out and vote, because they understand the strength their vote can
The addition of adjectives qualifying Wall Street creates a sense of unity among the voters and himself against Wall Street. He then ties this use of pathos into logos when he mentions the “800,000 people a month [who] were losing their jobs”, in the hope that people would want to change the system after having a personal connection to this issue. He continues to use ROADS to get across his sense of urgency to change our society. Sanders repeats this urgency with stating that “we can can all agree, much, much more needs to be done” about the widening wage gap in our society today; that “too many people in America are still being left out, left behind and ignored” and that “in the richest country in the history of the world there is too much poverty, and too much despair”. By equating America to the “richest country in the history of the world”, Sanders also evokes a sense of pride and