Question

What does the author’s language reveal about his tone toward the American Electoral college system? What rhetorical strategies does he use to justify his perspective?

Answer 1

Answer:

The author, Mike Kubic, has a negative tone towards the American Electoral college system in his 2016 article The American Electoral Process.

He is describing how it is unfair, costly, convoluted, not-entirely democratic, and with dubious results.

• Unfair, because of the fact that some states (primarily, smaller ones) have more representatives per capita than their bigger counterparts.
• Costly, because the candidates spend millions, if not billions of dollars running their campaigns.
• Convoluted, because it takes many months, if not years to prepare.
• Not-entire democratic, because the people don't vote for the president directly, but rather for representatives who will then choose the president.
• With dubious results, because of the "super delegates" as well as the case of George W. Bush v. AL Gore he mentions in the article.

He uses many rhetorical strategies to support his perspective, primarily ethos: using quotes, numbers, and statistics to depict the unfairness of the system.