Pulling at Our Heartstrings: The Republican Party’s Use of Pathos in Their Presidential Campaign Rhetoric as an Explanation for Their Success in Recent Presidential Elections

• In Event: Scholar to Scholar II
  In Paper Session: Public Address and Political Issues

Abstract

During the past 40 years the Republican Party has held the United States presidency for all but 12 years. This paper argues that one reason for this is that in their presidential campaign rhetoric Republicans have made effective use of emotional appeals while Democrats have relied more on logical appeals. In particular the GOP has had much success using appeals to fear, religion, and anger, as well as with a “plain folks” appeal.

Author

• David Eugene Foster, University of Findlay