THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
I now want to turn to McWilliams' article and certain observations she makes about Donald J. Trump, the Republican Party's 2016 presidential candidate, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic Party's 2016 presidential candidate.
I agree with McWilliams that Hillary Rodham Clinton has never been a talented campaigner. As McWilliams suggest, "Her wonkish inclination to focus on details and the immediate task at hand" may make her an able policymaker and/or bureaucrat.
When Hillary played to her strengths as a policy wonk, she usually was using a logos-appeal. But perhaps at times also involving a bit of a pathos-appeal and/or a bit of an ethos-appeal.
Trump was no match for her as a policy wonk. As a result, he rarely used a logos-appeal. Instead, he used both a pathos-appeal and an ethos-appeal.
Now, if I am correct in saying that our American presidential campaigns involve epideictic rhetoric about values, an ethos-appeal is indispensable for constructing effective appeals involving values.
Trump's campaign motto "Make America Great Again!" effectively expresses certain values.
I agree with McWilliams that "the cynicism that Trump harnessed . . . had long been growing" in the United States well before the 2016 presidential election. But this just shows that Trump's campaign was about certain values.
In my estimate, Trump harnessed cynicism that anti-60s conservatives have been cultivating and expressing for decades. See Philip Jenkins' book Decade of Nightmares: The End of the Sixties and the Making of Eighties America (Oxford University Press, 2006) and Bill Press' book The Obama Hate Machine: The Lies, Distortions, and Personal Attacks on the President -- and Who is Behind Them (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press, 2012). (For anti-60s conservatives, President Obama symbolizes the black civil rights movement of the 1960s.)
Now, when Hillary pointed out that Trump had once called a beauty queen fat, Hillary also was invoking a certain value, or dis-value. But that's not all she was doing.
When Hillary mentioned that Trump had once called a beauty queen fat, Hillary was making a pathos-appeal (we're supposed to say, "Ugh!" -- or at least feel like saying, "Ugh!").
In addition, Hillary may have also been using an ethos-appeal (you want to join with me and my air of triumph about knowing better than to say such a thing). McWilliams notes Hillary's air of triumph in saying this.
Now, when McWilliams say that Hillary was "never a talented campaigner," I would say that she was not talented in making an effective ethos-appeal.
But Trump effectively used the tag-line about "crooked Hillary" to undercut any ethos-appeal Hillary tried to make on her own behalf. Her ethos-appeal relied on stressing her experience and preparation for the office of the presidency.
Hillary tried to undercut Trump's ethos-appeal as a tough-talking deal-maker by emphasizing his lack of preparation for the office of the presidency and his real and alleged character defects.
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