Logos

Who wants to see someone like William Jennings Bryan arguing for peace and civility in the spirit of Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball"?

No one, that's who.

He couldn't have come into this speech careening in on a demolition machine wearing nothing but the skin he was born with. (We're talking metaphorically here, by the way.)

Bryan had to appear logical, rational, and under control. Part of his point in the speech was to paint the pro-imperialists as kind of hot-headed and bully-ish. He said,

And so with this nation. It is of age and it can do what it pleases; it can spurn the traditions of the past; it can repudiate the principles upon which the nation rests; it can employ force instead of reason; it can substitute might for right; it can conquer weaker people; it can exploit their lands, appropriate their property and kill their people; but it cannot repeal the moral law or escape the punishment decreed for the violation of human rights. (73)

In this quote, Bryan made an appeal to the audience's understanding of history, politics, and morality all in one tight-knit package. But logic and reason tie them all together. Those without those qualities are inferred to be violent and unreasonable. That is, they were inferred to be pro-imperialists.

And those imperialists were definitely coming in like a wrecking ball.