A reader who responded to my most recent previous commentary — “Voters Deserve Better from Presidential Candidates Going Forward “, suggested because I serve at a consulting firm that provides counsel and services to Republican candidates, it “seems that my mission is to create false equivalency between the two presidential candidates and obscure the facts.”
What it seems to be to that reader is not what it is.
That reader is using argumentum ad hominem, a rhetorical strategy where one attacks the character, motive, or some other attribute of the person offering an opinion, rather than attacking the substance of the opinion itself.
In my commentary, I wrote about a previous divisive gubernatorial election in Pennsylvania. I suggested it provides good advice for whomever the candidates will be for president in 2024.
I did not mention the names of any current or future 2024 presidential candidates.
At this point in the 2024 election cycle, I do not know who candidates will be.
I do know this.
I am not an apologist for or zealous supporter of former President Donald Trump or any other Republican candidate.
I am not an apologist for or zealous supporter of President Joe Biden or any other Democratic candidate.
I am not an apologist for or zealous supporter of any third party or independent candidate.
My guiding principle in the political arena has always been never to support or vote for a candidate based solely on party affiliation. My support and votes are based solely on how closely a candidate’s views on public policy issues align with my views on those issues.
My guiding principle when writing guest commentaries is acceptance of the thinking of Frank Luntz who said this about messages — “It’s not what you say or write. You can have the best message in the world, it’s what people hear or read. The person on the receiving end will always understand it through the prism of their own emotions, preconceptions, prejudices, and preexisting beliefs.”
Presently my views on the two most likely major party candidates for President in 2024 are perfectly captured in a recent commentary by syndicated columnist Cal Thomas titled The Evil of Two Lessers.
In it, Thomas includes the following thoughts:
“Some voters in recent elections have complained about being forced to choose between the lesser of two evils. In the 2024 election, it appears we are heading for a worse choice – the evil of two lessers.”
Thomas writes, “Donald Trump continues demeaning and defaming anyone who disagrees with him. He repeats unproven claims that the 2020 election was ‘stolen.’
“A myriad of other inaccurate statements has apparently had a negative influence on President Biden who has joined him in the mud pit. In his recent speech near Valley Forge, America will become like Germany in the ’30s. The very future of democracy is at stake, he [Biden] claimed.”
Thomas goes on to write, “This isn’t Biden’s first trip into the mud. During the 2012 presidential campaign Vice President Biden told a Black audience that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney “would put you all back in chains.”
Thomas ends his commentary about 2024 by asking the question “Where is this corrosive language getting us? Why can’t we have a true debate over the best ways to fix our problems? Claiming your opponent would rule like a Nazi, or that the other is a crook, solves nothing.”
I agree.
David Reel is a public affairs/public relations consultant who serves as a trusted advisor on strategy, advocacy, and media matters who lives in Easton.
Jerry McConnell says
A big ol’ nothing burger ( again) from Mr Reel. Trying to defend your opinions in previous articles as being objective or balanced is silly, because your conservative ( let’s call it Republican ) position on politically oriented topics has been obvious. And once you’ve delivered a message, it’s supposed to be unnecessary to explain what you were really trying to say. Perhaps it would also be better to avoid the half hearted claims of objectivity, as most readers have determined for themselves what your political ideology actually is.
As perhaps you’re learning, saying something and then suggesting that you meant something else is a waste of time. Another wise philosopher once said ( in so many words), to know your audience and their motivations, as your message may inflame them and your words may be held in contempt.
Michael Davis says
Mr. Reel. I am always the one who missed the memo, who is a dollar short and a day late, and who is one too many mornings and a thousand miles behind. So, I totally missed the biases in your commentary. indeed, I’ve read a lot of what you write and never think you are a shill promoting irrationality out of your own self interest. You are fine by me.
Still I’m very aware of the false dichotomy issue that has plagued many news organizations since the advent of Trump as a political leader. He is a racist, and a fascist, and his campaign to be president is for an authoritarian government where he is the law. He is not a normal candidate and the press should not treat him as one. And now you have Republicans in state governments calling for murdering people who disagree with them. Roger Stone, a prominent Republican and friend of Donald Trump also promotes deadly political violence. Even today Trump encouraged voting for him as a way of reigning revenge on his enemies.
As unhelpful and false and dogmatic as any words spoken by a Democratic candidate may be, they are nothing compared to the demonic hateful political positions promoted by MAGA Republicans. Trump’s campaign playbook echos the Nazi party’s in the 1930s. That is well documented. This upcoming election is a choice between candidates who support democracy or those who want to destroy democracy by installing Trump as the first Emperor of America.
Michael Pullen says
Abraham Lincoln said, “A lawyers time and advice is his stock in trade.” I suppose if he was alive today, he might say that a media consultant who earns his living in politics working for Republican candidates’ stock in trade is his ability to persuade and influence public opinion to favor Republican candidates.
Since I am the “reader” whom he describes in this Part II, this is a brief response to his characterization of my letter.
Mr. Reel describes himself as a “trusted advisor”, but fails to mention that his job is working the media to elect Republicans. Readers are surely entitled to know this. If Mr. Reel perceives this as a personal attack, I don’t.
The obvious import of his piece was to establish false equivalency between the current front runners in the Presidential election. The first sentence of the first, topic paragraph says, “levels of bitter, vitriolic, divisive, often misleading, bombastic, and demeaning rhetoric from candidates of both parties continues to escalate.”
While this is true of one candidate, it is simply not true of the other. I wrote:
“Donald Trump uses demeaning language, mockery, personal attacks, calls to violence and rejects the rule of law. Having lost the election and 60+ lawsuits that falsely claimed he hadn’t lost fair and square, Trump has no vision for America other than revenge, nursing false claims of victimhood.
Biden is not remotely like Trump. Trump had no platform in 2016 and promises for 2024 that ‘I’ll only be a dictator for one day.’
‘When a person tells you who they are, believe them the first time.’ Maya Angelou.
There’s no equivalency, Donald Trump is not the man nor the moral equivalent of Joe Biden. Messaging aside, the real choice is clear.”
Rather than guidance from William Scranton, the Republican candidate for Governor in Pennsylvania in the 1950’s, look to Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower, Commander of Allied Forces in Europe in WW II and then President of the United States, who said:
“If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.” Dwight D. Eisenhower, speech, Mar. 6, 1956
“The history of free men (and women) is never really written by chance but by choice–their choice.” Dwight D. Eisenhower, speech, Oct. 9, 1956
Anne Stalfort says
👏👏👏