The Huffington post recently published Candice Gingrich's letter of protest to her brother Newt:
What she is reacting to is this:
Here is her reaction as the Huffington post presents it:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/candace-gingrich/a-letter-to-my-brother-ne_b_145739.html
Newt's (and many other's social conservatives') political success has been built on the fallacy of composition, combined with a slippery slope. That is, he attributes to the whole of the gay, black, impoverished, etc. communities what pertains to their parts, and even then, only very few of their parts. He then claims that the world will go to hell if these communities concerns were addressed. The tactic works by addressing rhetorical questions that, as his sister mentioned, drum up fear: "Isn't it just wrong to for Jane Doe to perform heinous act x? Jane Doe is gay/black/poor or a gay/black/poor activist. Why should we believe. then, that the gay/black/poor community and their activists wouldn't perform wrongful, heinous acts, such as x on a grander scale if we actually gave them some recognition? Why would you want to lend a helping hand to a bunch of x-ers?"
ReplyDeleteIn Gingrich's ideal world, the most responsible thing for a citizen to do is to oppose gay/black/poor initiatives. In mine, the most responsible thing for a citizen to do is learn a bit of basic logic so he or she might not be deceived by one or another politician's deceptive "vision."
Extremely well stated Nate! I agree with you. It's a basic Neo-Con strategy - of course many other types and groups use it too -, which Gingrich had a great deal to do with inventing: Use fear and hate to mobilize voters to your side.
ReplyDeleteDid Newt invent it, or re-invent it? I suspect this tactic has far pre-dated him.
ReplyDeleteI suspect you are correct. Newt is merely making use of a well-known political tactic with a very long history. I guess it is more accurate to say that he re-invented it for our time.
ReplyDelete