Summary Of Rhetorical Analysis Of Bernie Sanders's 'Lane'

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Over the past year, American politics have been the forefront of many people’s minds. However, before the recent election, political parties concentrated their efforts on the primaries, where they chose a candidate to represent their values. Regarding the Democratic party, the two main contenders were Hillary Clinton— who later went on to be the Democratic nominee— and Bernie Sanders— an elderly Socialist Jew who appealed to the younger generation. As a part of his platform, Sanders expressed his desire to make college free, causing the topic to become a main headline in the media. Although Sanders failed to become the Democratic nominee, his idea persisted throughout the election, as Hillary Clinton included the ideology in her campaign. In …show more content…

While he intends to persuade the audience that Sanders’s platform is absurd and illogical, his traditionally conservative views may be off-putting for some of his readers, so Lane aims to subtly introduce his views and relate to the audience. With these rhetorical elements, he inspires the audience to consider alternative views, creating an exploratory and respectful …show more content…

To conclude, he issues that the “financial stake encourages students to study hard” and “encourages families to monitor their kids’ schools” (Lane). Primarily, this appeals to traditional family values of perseverance and teamwork. Notably, Lane juxtaposes these ideas with free college, claiming that it may “breed entitlement, indifference, or both.” Being that many families reward hard work, the concept of entitlement may motivate parents to vote against Sanders’s plan. However, Lane’s comment may offend a younger audience, as he implies that millennials are shallow and lazy; since much of Sanders’s support originates from younger people, Lane may have perversely driven his younger audience away, back to Sanders. Although Lane drew connections with his opposition earlier in the piece, this appeal to pathos may have repulsed some of his