2020 Democratic Presidential Primaries is the clash of ethos and logos
The democratic primary has been, perhaps more than any time, the playing out of the clash of Aristotle’s elements of rhetoric — ethos, pathos, and logos —blood and flesh before our own eyes. Aristotle defines rhetoric as “ the faculty of discovering in any particular case all of the available means of persuasion” and identifies ethos, pathos, and logos as ‘appeals’ of rhetoric: ethos is persuasion through character and credibility; pathos refers to persuasion through appealing to emotion; and logos is appeal to the logic or reason of the audience. Senator Bernie Sanders with his message of “economic, racial, social and environmental justice for all” that rings true in the hearts and minds of Americans, including the wealthy class who are most threatened by his “Tax increase for the rich”, as the billionaire candidate, Tom Steyer supported it, is the voice of reason, logos. Vice President Joe Bidden, on the other hand, despite cutting a poor figure in the presidential debates for his oratory of the tongue-tied and horrendous gaffes, remains a strong candidate in the campaign because he is the representation of ethos. Joe Biden is seen as relatively honest and trustworthy, or at worst the devil you know (although the Ukraine case, if found to be true, may well be a dent in his character). This does not mean that the rest and most notably Sanders do not have character— what it means is that ethos is the only card Joe Biden put his campaign on. That is actually the card that the whole democratic party has put its trust upon. Electability is another term for ethos. Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Senator Amy Klobuchar as well as Kamala Harris with their gift of the gab, are foils to Joe Biden. They are, to a varying extent, the pathos in the primary. Biden’s supporters would, however, argue “evil has vivid speech, goodness bites its tongue” in his defence.
The rest of the candidates fall somewhere among them in the spectrum, with Andrew Young, Elizabeth Warren, and Tulsi Gabbard, on the logos part of the spectrum, Bloomberg roaming about aimlessly in the mid of the spectrum.
Ethos, as Aristotle contends as the most powerful form of persuasion, has also proven to be more important in the race for president in the modern US history. Hillary Clinton’s Ethos, her questionable character, what with all the corrupt maneuverings, cover-ups, which Donald Trump did well to expose, was the main reason why she, against all odds, lost to Trump. Ethos is why the vice president won the South Carolina primary by huge margin despite the poor debate performances. That and the Jim Clyburn, endorsement, who himself is a very strong ethos among the blacks. The endorsement speech of Clyburn is interesting: “I know Joe. We know Joe. But most importantly Joe knows us”. It is all about the character of Joe Biden. That seems also why President Donald Trump identified Joe as a potential threat since Joe’s announcement of his candidacy — and Joe still remains one he fears most.
It is interesting to see if character, ethos, of the elements of rhetoric will prevail in the 2020 democratic presidential race come November and face President Vanity America chose as the lesser of two evils in the last election. Already, pathos has fizzled out in the rigors of the campaign, as Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar have dropped out of the presidential race; what remains seems choice between reason and character. Ideally, though, the democrats need a presidential nominee who is a Senator Bernie Sanders, Vice President Joe Biden, and Mayor Pete and Senator Klobuchar rolled all into one — an Obama.
