Bernie Sanders's Rhetorical Elements Of Ethos Pathos Logos

Bernie Sanders has goals to eliminate tuition for public colleges and universities, implement a single-payer healthcare system, overhaul campaign finance regulations and put in place major Wall Street regulations to prevent future financial crises. These are all seemingly impossible dreams to accomplish but, he may accomplish them by his proficiency in the rhetorical elements of ethos, logos, and pathos. According to BYU, ethos means, “the persuasive appeal of one’s character”. Throughout the debate, Sanders attempted to make it seem like he was a righteous man, who will make good, moral decisions, for the betterment of all people. Sanders made it clear, when he made his points that these were his opinions. He stated “I am proud to say that …show more content…
What this essentially means is appealing to the audience through facts. Sanders logos throughout the debate was strong but, was weakened due to some incorrect facts. The strong parts of his logos was when he brought up some mind boggling stats. For example, he stated that “A male african baby has a 25% chance of going to jail”. He advocates that the court systems are corrupt, have racism in them, and that if he was president he would decrease those numbers. The fact above is so staggering that when voters hear he would plan to decrease those numbers it makes them want to vote for him. And that’s exactly what he wants. Another example of strong logos is when he said that “20% of Americans can’t afford antibiotics”. This fact backed up his believe that there should be free health care, which made his argument even stronger. The part where Sanders goes wrong though, is where he states a false fact. He stated the unemployment rate for African American youth is 50%, the actual rate of unemployment for African American youth is between 16% and 19%. This makes his argument seem weaker and can affect people’s opinion of his character. The third, and final rhetorical appeal he used, was