I love rhetoric, the art of arguing. The way some people appreciate the arc of smooth jump shot, I notice the flow of well-crafted sarcasm. I don't always root for the winning team, but I can appreciate the skill they bring to the linguistic field especially when it comes to trick plays.
And I have to give triple props to the Tea Party and their team of conservative players. They have changed the game of political rhetoric, and I'd like to take a moment and share just 3 of their most clever plays.
One of the simplest and most ingenious tricks of debate is to get your opponent arguing over a single sub-point while you repeat the main point as if it were all ready proven.
Another trick is to constantly change the midpoint (the average between the two sides where compromise is usually found) by restating your position in more and more extreme terms. It's like raising the bet in poker until the other guy just gives up because the stakes are ridiculously high.
For example, in the debate over raising minimum wage: Opponents say that raising minimum wage will cause a loss of jobs. That's one of many sub-points about the issue. But, supporters of a higher minimum wage get caught up in trying to empirically disprove this hypothetical argument that cannot be proven or disproven. Meanwhile conservatives continue to simply state "Minimum wage costs jobs" as though the point was proven and printed on stone tablets in God's handwriting.
1st Trick.
In the same discussion over raising minimum wage: When supporters propose a $1.75 increase, opponents counter by saying eliminate minimum wage all together. They change the midpoint and now supporters fall over themselves trying to prove that there should be a minimum wage. They lose focus on why it should be higher.
Trick #2.
It's ingenious. I really admire the rhetorical savvy of conservative strategists.
They've gotten the other side so discombobulated that they haven't made the simplest most obvious observation: No matter what you do with minimum WAGE, America will never have minimum COST.
Eliminate minimum wage and Coca Cola will pay $2/ day. But a 20 oz. Sprite won't cost a penny less.
Keep minimum wage the same and Raceway will keep paying its employees the same amount, but Raceway is not going to keep gas prices at the same amount. They aren't going to freeze the price of honey buns.
You can freeze or eliminate a minimum pay scale but it won't freeze minimum real estate prices or the prices of milk, bread, baby food, health care, or college.
And the 3rd Trick is to compare one aspect of 2 different situations while ignoring every other aspect of the comparison.
Opponents make the comparison between the competitiveness of American businesses and the businesses of nations without minimum wage. I can't figure out why supporters don't just follow through on that comparison and talk about the lack of human rights, the abysmal poverty, the absence of what we consider basic services like sanitation and electricity, and the rampant governmental corruption that are endemic to "competitive" countries with little or no minimum wage policies.
People are supporting policies that give American billionaires the sweeter life of Chinese billionaires without thinking 2 more steps ahead to see that it means American citizens having the life of Chinese peasants.
Like I said, it's an ingenious strategy. Gotta respect the skills of these conservative strategists.
---Anderson T. Graves II is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of
Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization
(SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (
NIHD).
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
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