The previous post on Bush bemoaning mudslinging while engaging in it got me to thinking about his style of rhetoric.
He does one particular thing a lot: He sets up a strawman and then throws mud at it. In past years it was "some people"; this election season he's gotten more specific, aiming at "Democrats" for the most part. It's intellectually lazy, even dishonest. But it lets him look good by defining himself against the worst nightmare caricature of his opposition.
It's such a signature style it deserves a name. And I've got one. Strawman plus mud? Call it adobe politics.
Bush, politics, midtopia
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Bush's adobe politics
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2 comments:
I can't speak to this too much. I've reached the point I don't care to try and reason or compromise with a lot of people.
Maybe it's getting older and crankier or maybe it's years of being called names and mocked if I express any contrary opinion or try to be tolerant or look for a middle ground.
If full-frontal assault is all some people are able to comprehend then I'm their girl because I am no longer mincing any words or trying to "make nice".
Forty years of people like this wanting to "take it to a new level" and now it's on.
Both sides engage in this, but Bush seems to be especially good at slinging mud and then denying he is doing it. But, let's face it, the reason politicos do it is, it's effective. If people reacted to this stuff by saying, what an asshole about the guy saying it, they wouldn't do it, but people don't. It's the old idea about the bigger the lie, the more people believe it.
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