Actual Quote on Facebook 12/12/12: “It’s sad that the Republican party doesn’t care what the American people want, but merely want to carry out their own agenda. And they wonder why they lost the election? What happened to “We the People” and the constitution they swore to uphold? Only when the day comes that they start representing the wishes of the people will they finally get it. The old elephant it heading for the graveyard.”
Analysis: Sentence 1: a) Group Think Fallacy – Parties don’t care, people do. b) The statement is patently false is referring to individual Republicans. Most do care about what people want. They may not agree with the writer about what “most” want, but they care about it; they may not agree that people should get what they want, however. c) This is true – everyone wants their own agenda because they think their own agenda is reasonable and right. I suspect the person who wrote this wants his own agenda. Sentence 2: This is true. Many individual Republicans, including politicians wonder why they lost many races in the election. Sentence 3: a) This is a rhetorical question that implies that individual Republicans, including politicians don’t care about “We the People” and the constitution. This is also patently false. Most do, in fact care; they simply see the means to that differently than the writer, I suspect. This is a common narrow Different Answer / Don’t Care Fallacy that implies this if someone does not have the same answer to a question as you, then they must not care about the problem. Most Republicans, including politicians care about the problems in our nation, they simply have some different values and therefore different answers to the problem than many non-Republicans. b) Most Republicans care deeply about upholding the constitution, and in many cases far more than many non-Republicans. Sentence 3) This sentence basically implies that he gets it and Republicans do not. It is not clear in the sentence what they do not get, but the implication is that they do not agree with this person’s view on the American political system and that they only will when they think like they do (it is also implied that this person thinks like the rest of the American people). What is fascinating here is that this person implies that all the rest of the American people think like him except Republicans… and his view is that as soon as that changes, things will be better. All of this can be boiled down to one statement: he thinks that he is right and that everyone who thinks differently is wrong. THIS is not a problem, per se; most of us think that too. Sentence 4) This is simply a prediction. The sad thing is, he could be right if Republicans do not begin to stand firm and stand clearly for their beliefs and values and articulate them lovingly and powerfully to their fellow citizens.