As the presidential race is coming to a close and voting day is coming up, David Leonhardt, an editor for New York Times, writes to Republican voters in hopes that they will not vote for Donald Trump. Leonhardt uses narration in his letter to show his audience that he understands how they are feeling and to hopefully give them a solution through telling a story of a similar election and his grandparents that are republican. It does a nice job of explaining his argument to Republicans and establishing ethos. Leonhardt also uses Rogerian argument very well. He understands that some Republicans do not like Hillary and he says, “You believe President Obama has been a disappointment if not a failure. You think Hillary Clinton is wrong on most issues, and you worry about her judgment.” This helps establish his ethos with the Republicans. The author also uses an allusion to another election. He explains that Barry Goldwater was a Republican candidate that was similar to Trump. By using this allusion, he shows what happened in the past so that Republicans can use that knowledge to decide how to act now. Through his rhetorical devices one can see that Leonhardt is almost begging Republicans to not vote for Trump. He accomplished his purpose of explaining why Republicans shouldn’t vote for Trump. I think that he did do well in giving reasoning and backing up his claims. However he seems to assume that every Republican hates Trump. There are many Republicans who do want Trump to win, so they would not change their mind based off of the arguments that Leonhardt gives. However for the people on the fence, Leonhardt definitely could have impacted their decision.
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