In this article, I will describe how 2020 U.S presidential candidate Bernie Sanders employs rhetorical appeals (namely ethos, logos, and pathos) to sustain financial support for his second presidential campaign. My digital text that I will be analyzing consists of two inter-connected donation web-pages. The Sanders campaign team created and programmed these web-pages through the crowdfunding technology organization ActBlue, and both have been hyperlinked through Bernie Sanders’ official campaign website. These digital texts were created with two audiences in mind, which the 2020 Sanders Presidential Campaign seeks to attract towards these two donation pages: prospective voters (such as Independents, undecided Democrats, the apathetic, those who will be 18 in 2020, etc.), and loyal ‘Berners’ who voted for Sanders in 2016.

Each rhetorical appeal is effectively employed in these web-pages. I will explain in this paper how the 2020 Sanders Presidential Campaign uses ethos to reassert Bernie Sanders’s authority and name recognition, how logos is used in the digital text to get prospective voters to donate funds, and how pathos is used to envelop these the audiences’ demands. Without solely analyzing the personality behind this campaign, these donation pages, which act as a digital text with two chapters, encapsulates a balanced, blended, and passionate political call to action.

Fig. 1 — The Bernie Sanders 2020 Presidential Campaign’s donation page, as it appeared on February 19, 2019.

Ethos

Ethos is defined by the website Silva Rhetoricae as

the persuasive appeal of one’s character, especially how this character is established by the means of the speech or discourse” (Burton).

As much as Sanders may dislike putting personality over policy, his (anti-)charisma solidly interconnects with these digital texts. Bernie’s character can sway prospective voters away from other candidates, even while these digital texts, rhetorically speaking, lack transparency or images of the man behind the namesake campaign.

Several elements contained within both of these digital texts appeal to Sanders’s ethos, in that it speaks to both the strength of Sanders’s character and his campaign. One of these elements, binding Sanders’s campaign and prospective voters, is the continued inclusion of the Bernie 2016 campaign’s logo. This presumably copyrighted logo is one of the more familiar images that comes to mind when one utters the name “Bernie Sanders” (his frazzled grey hair is another, but unfortunately irrelevant, image). As such, the inclusion of Bernie’s campaign logo adds authority. Another element, subtler than the campaign logo, is the little lock-shaped icon on the top left corners of both figures, contained within the websites’ URL. These lock-shaped icons suggest that the site visitor’s current website is secured by back-end systems, systems which have the site visitor’s sense of security in mind. Using websites with this icon suggests that transparency is added by keeping site visitors’ monetary transactions secured through an encrypted server. Site visitors’ trust can be guaranteed by the server locking their data securely. People who wish to donate to Bernie Sanders can legally and legitimately do so on these web-pages.

For this digital text, I believe it is the use of ethos that the 2020 Sanders Presidential Campaign is appealing to most. Our interactions during what has been called an ‘electronic millennium’ occur in real time; plus, “With visual media, impression and image take precedence over logic and concept, and detail and linear sequentiality are sacrificed” (Birkerts 647). A lack of platitudes and aggressive language in this digital text makes it seem as if Sanders is saying his speech directly to site visitors. Furthermore, the phrases of these digital texts are reflective of who Sanders’s campaign is targeting, which reinforces that what Sanders states is believable.

Logos

Before I proceed with analyzing the employment of logos within these digital texts, it must be clearly stated that the ultimate purpose of both digital texts is to get site visitors to donate their money towards Bernie Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign. For this paper, subjective sentiments, whether grounded in logic or not, and whether prospective voters have qualms about what Sanders represents, will only be analyzed — slightly — in the “Pathos” section of this paper.

Logos is defined by Silva Rhetoricae as “the appeal to reason;” additionally, the Ancient Greeks associated logos beyond mere “reason,” but also “oration’” (Burton). In simpler words, logos is the message, and to quote Marshall McLuhan, “The medium is the message”. Most crowd-sourced fundraising, logically assuming, takes place online now, and Sanders’s digital text on his website showcases strong messaging for how effective online media is in arousing persuasion.

Fig. 2 — ActBlue’s subsequent donation page.

The ultimate goal of this digital text is for the 2020 Sanders Presidential Campaign to successfully make site visitors donate to candidate Bernie’s website. In Figure 2, site visitors are effectively acknowledged by the campaign via the inclusion of the $3 button, for example. There are several interesting implications of allowing a $3 donation as an option. Working-class and lower-class people may wish to donate what spare funds they can; the aforementioned button accomplishes that. Similarly, people donating $3 may wish to donate more frequently than they otherwise can by selecting larger amounts. Its inclusion even implies political strategy, as campaigns will reach moments where they will need more money to continue running.

Another example of logos effectively being showcased is the $27 donation button. A site visitor, unfamiliar to Sanders’s previous presidential campaign, may think it is an odd amount (it is), and question why the campaign requests that amount. To reinforce the relationship the campaign has with loyal supporters of his 2016 campaign, $27, while an odd amount, was the average campaign donation received during Sanders’s 2016 campaign (additionally, the price of both books Bernie has released post-2016 is also $27).

Figure 2 also indicates that all donation amounts are under the Bernie logo, beside the section headlined “Stand with Bernie”, which implores donors “to donate to this historic campaign” (Sanders). Most campaigns receive their strongest funding when they announce, with dwindling funds arriving later. “It is so important that we [emphasis added] start strong,” one statement concludes, promoting the grassroots activism Sanders supporters are known for. Because Sanders is publicly known to reject any large-scale SuperPAC donations, it makes logical sense (and cents) that his campaign would rely on fundraising from non-corporate entities and small-scale donors.

Pathos

For those 2016 campaign supporters, more is at stake than merely continuing to donate or do grassroots activism. The U.S Constitution of 1787 appears subverted to millions of Americans in 2019; they believe that the government, at all levels, does not represent them. Pathos is defined by Silva Rhetoricae as

the appeal to emotion

whilst also being

the category by which we can understand the psychological aspects of rhetoric (Burton).

This digital text utilizes pathos to incite excitement about the 2020 Sanders campaign, as feeling excitement tends to make people supportive of something. Two primary observations can be made about the pathos of the digital text by analyzing both figures’ use of color and word choices.

Firstly, the digital text’s usage of colors heightens site visitors’ emotions towards donating to Sanders’s campaign. We can see in both figures that besides all of the white space, blue is the color associated with the Democrats. Green, the color internationally associated with driving forward through intersections, permeates the “Add Your Name” button in Figure 1, which is meant to incentivize site visitors to donate funds, since green is the color of U.S dollars. Blue and green are also inviting colors that exude relaxation and naturality.

Secondly, the politically colorful language invoked in both figures fuses the site visitors’ excitement towards getting involved with the character of Bernie Sanders and his 2020 Presidential Campaign. At this early stage in the campaign (at the time of this writing), Bernie Sanders and his team simply propose, in a rather rhetorical survey question within Figure 1, the following: “Are you willing to do the hard work necessary to win this election and to transform our country?” (Sanders). Ironically, clicking some buttons to donate money may not be “hard work”, but it promotes that regarding real-world political action. People want to see their hard-earned money go towards good causes. The previous question incites more aggression by asking the site visitor “Are you ready to fight [emphasis added] to fight for Medicare for all?” among other policies (Sanders). Both the campaign and site visitor know such policies are not yet law; but by touching on prospective voters’ real-world (and sometimes existential) concerns, the site visitor can get excited about implementing these life-changing laws, and the campaign can reassert its authority as the vanguard of progressive policy issues.

Excessive use of pathos can come at the expense of logos, which underlies one’s overall messaging. Some interactions remain constrained online, with human interaction remaining ambiguous in certain cyber-spaces. However, this digital text, in its application of pathos, does not sacrifice the basis of the text’s purpose of seeking donations (via logos). Figure 2’s equality, in particular is synchronous with the campaign’s fight for equality of all Americans. By the campaign and web developer making each donation button of equal size, site visitors, some who may be financially tight on money, can donate three dollars, yet feel as philanthropic as somebody who donates $1000.

Concluding Remarks

Bernie Sanders’ position and perception as an ‘outsider’ separate of the Washington D.C ‘establishment’ is admired by some Americans, on both sides of “the aisle”, who cannot achieve socio-economic mobility. Liberals in the U.S can easily find several faults with President Trump and his bombastic demeanor; but his status as a multi-billionaire, pop culture icon, and embodiment of a successful capitalist (masquerading as outsider) remains extremely effective. However, thousands of prospective voters are (for differing and various reasons) continuing to long for the national implementation of significantly more progressive policies than those of the reactionary Trump Administration.

Even in terms of the arrangement and style of their donation webpages’ content, the Sanders campaign acknowledges and addresses socio-economically frustrated Americans, who current President Donald Trump cannot appease, by the design of both the Sanders and ActBlue webpages lend credibility to Sanders’s ethos, in its simple and non-bombastic appearance. The two donation pages/digital text accounts for the solidity and solidarity of Bernie Sanders’s 2020 Presidential Campaign, playing a straightforward role for prospective voters and a significant role in garnering media coverage. Figure 1 is reminiscent of a postcard’s layout, and its smoothness into Figure 2 keeps site visitors

“moving steadily on a successful path…[who] won’t even realize they’ve clicked four or five times instead of three” (Redish 99).

The Internet is the prime place for making money talk; all of these elements attest to the unsurprising fact that Bernie Sanders, for all his lambasting of certain wealthy donors, breaks fundraising and rally-attending records.

Each of the three rhetorical appeals, by themselves, could undoubtedly be analyzed in further detail beyond this digital text. Analyzing an entire rally speech or other facets of either Sanders presidential campaign (2016/2020) would lead to more drawn-out implications of his policy platform. Bernie Sanders is known for maintaining consistent messaging; so, if his campaign felt the need to address future emergencies or national events, they will not make things up as the 2020 election. Whether or not one can “feel the Bern” without taking into consideration Sanders’ democratic-socialist policies, and whether or not one personally agrees with those policies, is a subjective matter that cannot adequately be accounted for in this paper. Likewise, what causes prospective voters and/or site visitors to donate to and belief in somebody’s character are related subjective issues too large to take on. Regardless, this digital text functions efficiently as is, because the Sanders campaign will keep receiving money from these web-pages until the campaign ends. The use of ethos, pathos, and logos complement each other towards bettering the campaign. Thus, for the sake of brevity and the dissection of one (two-step) digital text, it has been my intention in this paper to showcase how the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign team employs rhetorical appeals in order to sustain financial support from grassroots backers.