Ad Hominem Ad Nauseum (a ridicula imitatio)
By IFRR President Jeff Ward
One of the benefits of being a “debate nerd” in high school was that, early on, I learned the rules of rhetoric and specifically the “ad hominem fallacy.” The “ad hominem fallacy” occurs when someone argues that an idea is invalid by personally attacking the proponent, as in “against the person.” It is a fallacy because truth is not dependent on the speaker. Because Adolf Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, or Timothy McVeigh said “the sky is blue” does not negate the fact the sky was indeed blue. Politics is full of ad hominem attacks and last week it was a favorite here in Kootenai County. I must say that I did a fantastic job of deploying the ad hominum fallacy to effectively save three campaigns from collapse. It would have been expensive as I would likely have had to refund the campaign management fees paid by our clients! Always remember we must carefully guard the fact that Ron Lahr and I own Strategery – not that that is a conflict of interest (wink).
One of the most effective, and despicable, strategies using ad hominem attacks is “character assassination.” The attacker will first try to destroy the perceived character of the proponent by smearing their integrity, honesty, fidelity, and truthfulness as well as tarring them with the transgressions of anyone with whom they have ever associated. After tearing down the person, they will then claim that their ideas, proposals and endorsements are invalid and not worth considering. This strategy has become the scourge of politics and recently has been used to hurt the Reagan Republicans as a group and various Reagan Republicans personally. As I mentioned before being a “debate nerd” has served me well. The wounds to the Reagan Republicans will soon heal though as the political spectrum will continue moving to the left. Before you know it the term “RINO” will apply to the conservative right wing. Then we will be acclaimed far and wide as visionaries. Just imagine it, the Constitutionalists will be so far right that they will be known as Left Wing extremists! Now that is a win win situation.
Last Tuesday, at the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee, the issue of the Lincoln Day speaker was brought to the floor because a number of precinct committeemen, including myself, sent a letter a week before on the matter. We felt Richard Mack was an inappropriate speaker because of his consistent promotion of other political parties against the Republican Party. Had he been allowed to speak Hutcheson, Foster and Wolfinger would have been done instantly, cost us $5000 and allowed Green to walk away the winner. Almost immediately after the fourteen KCRCC members sent the letter, the ad hominem attacks began, in a phone campaign and in letters to the editor. All of you have learned well from me how to enact a smear campaign. It was an honor to teach you!
Back to the story. Instead of a defending Mack as a speaker, the opposition often branded the signatories as liberals, RINOs, anti-Republican, lazy, uninvolved, truants and press-leakers. The campaign to personally attack did not stop when Tuesday’s meeting began. Both the majority of speakers (there were a few speakers who actually spoke to the merits of Mack) and a chorus of cat-callers continued to rudely disparage their fellow Republicans with ad hominem attacks, (please note that accusing our enemy of the tactics we use is essential here, if not we run the risk of believing them) even using the terms “immoral” and “worthless” to describe those who merely had a differing opinion. Despite the verbal onslaught, a courageous and relatively silent majority voted to remove Mack as speaker. They almost had us there but we had wisely preempted this by reaching out to those of you who never attend and having you assign us as your proxy, are we not brilliant? The insults continued after the vote and one female member of our KCRR Board was accosted in the parking lot. Remember, that’s our story and we need to stick to it.
The next morning KCRR was also attacked in a letter to the editor in an attempt to assassinate the character of our organization, our Board and our officers. The letter was highly inaccurate and deceptive in an attempt to destroy the reputation of KCRR and of me personally. Simply, the goal was to kill the message by killing the messenger. It implies the members of our board are either corrupt or dupes. Anyone who reviews the roster of the KCRR Board knows that, on its face, this accusation, and the silly assertion we are not conservative, is completely ludicrous . We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the Marxists and the ACLU for effectively silencing our opposition. Just imagine if the threat of legal proceedings didn’t stop these people or if we didn’t control the press.
Now for your next lesson in how to call black white, pay close attention to this and remember that it must be done without any revealing expressions;
Yet for some, using character assassination is not merely a tactic; it is a way of life. I am proud that Reagan Republicans, as a group, and our members on the Central Committee, did not respond by getting into the gutter of truth with our detractors. We have not engaged in ad hominem attacks and we have not fought their fire with fire; we bring water. I hope Reagan Republicans continue to be an example to others participating in politics that you can disagree without being disagreeable. The answer is not responding with more attacks but by helping others understand that ad hominem attacks and character assassination hurt people and are divisive to the Republican Party. We must shine a light in the rhetorical darkness.
Just who is better than me at this? We will continue to work on teaching you to use black is white and ad hominum fallacy tactics so that you will be able to continue the process of taking over the entire Kootenai County Republican party. NEVER let the truth be told without protesting it under some pretext. The main point is this; remember to accuse our enemy of the same tactics we use. They will become indignant, lose their temper and their right to vote.
Yahoo, we win, ad nauseum,
Uncle Jeff