Ethos, logos and pathos. Those are Aristotle's elements of effective rhetoric. Ethos: the trustworthiness and believability of the speaker. Logos: the logical, rational arrangement of the argument. Pathos: the emotional appeal of the argument.
In teaching speech and debate I urged my students to focus on ethos and logos. If those were solid the emotional appeal usually took care of itself. Obviously, I was never a Democrat Party consultant. They rely almost entirely on pathos.
They used to get away with it too because their media propaganda arm relentlessly hammered it home and covered for them when it failed. However, particularly with the second Trump term, Americans are increasingly feeling something missing. A single-minded appeal to pathos, particularly one based in Trump Derangement Syndrome and raw hatred, has begun to feel increasingly like going way too far in going too far. Even better, even the media has begun to understand they dare not reflexively defend and protect Democrats, at least not all the time.
A case in point was a recent attempt by Senator Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn./Somalia) to support the current "Trump's inflation is out of control!" narrative. George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley notes:
In academia, one of the greatest concerns with statistical studies is the danger of "confirmation bias" or "myside bias." A desire to prove a point can lead to a blindness to opposing data or information. This week, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) repeatedly demonstrated the scourge of statistical studies with spectacular and embarrassing success.
Klobuchar released a chart before Thanksgiving to blame President Donald Trump for rising consumer costs. The only problem is that the chart showed that the skyrocketing costs occurred under former President Joe Biden. Klobuchar focused on the short period on the chart representing Trump's second presidency, while ignoring the soaring costs under his predecessor.
Prof. Turley attributes Klobuchar's dimwittery to confirmation bias, the tendency to recognize only data or arguments that support one's predetermined beliefs. However, it's likely far less technical:
Klobuchar is either unable to understand how to read a simple graph, or believes Americans are too dense to do the same. They aren't, and the backlash was immediate and hilarious:
Donald Trump has been in office only about 10 months and an aircraft carrier-sized economy takes time to turn. Klobuchar learned nothing from her Party, which tried the same idiotic stunt in July of 2025:
In both cases, Democrats accidentally illustrated a horrific rise in past due energy payments and in grocery prices under Biden's Handlers, peaking just as Trump took office and began to work on fixing the inflation that ran amok under Biden. Egg prices used to be a favorite Democrat topic, but they haven't mentioned them lately. As it turns out, they have good reason for their uncharacteristic silence:
Graphic: BLS/USDA Date, Public Domain, via EggPrices.org
Notice the average US price for a dozen eggs peaked at around $8.00 as Trump took office, but by August 2025, dropped to around $2.00 where it remains today. The highest price is in -- surprise! -- California: $11.07.
Democrats are worried because Americans increasingly aren't listening to the Trump inflation narrative. When Americans pay far less for income tax in a few months, Democrats are going to become despondent and bull goose looney when inflation continues to decline as the midterms draw nearer. For the moment, they're relying on pet reporters and lies, misdirection and concealing facts to prop up their anti-Trump hysteria.
But what has them most worried is their media propaganda arm, experiencing new lows in public confidence, is not only becoming less effective in lying for them but is becoming more resistant to it. Pathos isn't working and logos and ethos are becoming increasingly essential.
What's old is new again.
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