Allison Grimes Rigged Rhetorical Strategies

There is no doubting when it comes to rhetoric that a strong emotional appeal by a credible influential figure is an incredibly effective rhetorical strategy. This is gloriously exemplified in Allison Grimes’ article, "''Rigged' rhetoric wrong, destructive", wherein Mrs. Grimes asserts that Trumps questioning of the legitimacy of the current election cycle is dangerous, however, her usage of emotional appeal and appeal to authority underscores her failure to include logical appeal.

Allison begins her article firmly, by stating "It's time to tell it like it is." (1). Afterwards, she begins with her thesis statement, being that "Donald Trump’s brazen accusation – unsupported by any evidence whatsoever – that the Nov. 8 general election is entirely

In her second paragraph, she asserts that Trump may "tempt his most ardent followers to inappropriately try to suppress the rights of citizens to vote by becoming vigilante poll watchers or, later, resort to post-election violence."(3). This statement is written to inspire fear from readers, down to the basics of word choice. Many words with negative connotations are selected, such as "tempt", "vigilante" "inappropriately" "suppress". This makes the reader concerned about the presence of poll watchers on election day (even though becoming a poll watcher is an entirely legal form of volunteering). She also claims that violence may break out, in spite of her lack of evidence. Grimes also states that Trumps words undermine our democracy when she says "if Mr. Trump refuses to accept the results it would severely undermine one of the basic hallmarks of our democracy"(4). She later states that "Ours is a system that has molded America into a global power, helped us weather wars and depressions, and been an essential building block of economic prosperity, racial justice, and gender equality."(5). The clear implication being here, is that Trumps words will lead war, depressions, loss of economic prosperity, racial injustice, and a rise in gender inequality. Allison masterfully uses the assumptions of the American people to make implications, which if outright stated, would not

Allison opens the second half of her article with the statement that "Making it easy to vote and hard to cheat has been one of my highest priorities as Secretary of State."(10). She also claims that "I initiated an Election Integrity Task Force with federal and state law enforcement officials, including U.S. Attorneys, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the Kentucky Attorney General, and the Kentucky State Police."(11). Now, to be clear, Allison Grimes is involved in politics, so already has a sort of credibility. These paragraphs serve mainly to further increase her credibility, by showing that not only does she have political experience in general, but she has also worked with important law enforcement groups to root out the specific issue discussed in this article, voter fraud. To the average reader, this should be enough to seal the deal and convince the reader that Mrs. Allison must know what she is speaking about.

Based on the tone of this rhetorical analysis, you may wonder whether or not the author believes Mrs. Grimes article to be a good example of rhetoric, or whether the author believes it to be ineffective. This is where the difficulty comes in, this article is clearly a masterwork of emotional appeal from a credible author, however, the article lacks any substance at all, and almost all of her emotional appeals are based on inaccuracies and the