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Rhetorical Analysis Of Bernie Sanders's Campaign

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Bernie Sanders, a Democratic candidate in the Presidential election, announced his campaign in his hometown of Burlington, Vermont. It was a very unusual setting: though it was a rally, it was seen more as a festival, with free Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and performances by the local Vermont-based band, Mango Jam. In his 35-minute speech given at the rally, Sander’s focused on campaigning without the help of billionaires and Super PACs, going against what most of his opponents were doing. He launched his campaign with the hope of creating a “political revolution to transform [this] country economically, politically, socially and environmentally” (Sanders). In explaining his ideals on how he would bring about this political revolution, Bernie Sanders …show more content…

Aristotle claims, ”there is persuasion through the hearers when they are led to feel emotion by the speech” (Aristotle 39). Here, Aristotle is describing pathos, which is an appeal to the emotions of the audience. He continues by saying that different situations bring about different emotions within an audience, much like how a grievous situation and a rejoicing situation would bring about different emotions. Furthermore, Aristotle argues that it is important to “rid ourselves of negative emotion” (Kristjánsson). This notion of appealing to the audience’s emotions can be seen in Bernie Sander’s announcement for Presidency. Multiple times, Bernie Sanders refers to the audience as “you” and “we.” He urges for a political revolution to transform the U.S. and he calls upon his audience to help him. To do this, he positively appeals to the audience’s emotions, primarily through bringing up his rough childhood and lives of his parents. Both of his parents were poor and were not as well off as his opponents’ families. With this in mind, he urges his audiences against Citizens United, a United States constitutional law that deals with the regulation of campaign spending by organizations, and against billionaires to control the government, for this, according to Sanders, is oligarchy. Rather, Sanders’ argues for a democracy, reiterating the “one man, one vote” ideal. He also appeals to the audience’s emotions when talking about climate change. He promotes the idea of leaving the country in a great condition for “our kids and grandchildren.” By bringing in families, Sanders is bringing in something we care about. He addresses his audience as his “brothers and sisters” and discusses the issues that an average American would face, and by doing this, he targets a large audience and is able to form a

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