I’m sure you’re all familiar with posioning the well; you know, the rhetorical tactic whereby you attack the person instead of the argument. And I’m sure you all know that this is universally accepted to be a logical fallacy- that is, if I show you compelling evidence that it is unhealthy to be overweight and you should lose weight, it does not discredit all my evidence that I happen to weigh 400 pounds.
So my question is - why does everyone on this board cry “partisan!” as soon as someone posts something they think of as typical of a political party’s opinion? It seems to me that a person examines facts on thier own, and then comes to a conclusion based on which authorities they have known to be trustworthy and which values they hold. What difference does it make if the values and authorities happen to agree with one political party? Doesn’t this just mean that the poster tends to agree, philosophically, with that party anyway? How does the high-pitched whine of “partisan!” accomplish anything more than pointing out that the person agrees with a position Dems or Reps agree with?
The two possible way that cries of “partisan!” could relate to an argument would be in issues of dogma or dishonesty. That is, either someone is so in love with Bush that they will justify anything he does, or they’ll claim to agree with him for their own reasons. (Maybe a person wants to see a Republican in power, and so they’ll choose to argue in favor of keeping Bush even when they see the other side.)
But if a person is really arguing that the opponent is just being dogmatic, they should be able to point that out through argument and not name-calling. And if the person is being dishonest, well, I dont think anyone on this bored is going to be fooled.
I just wish the cries of “wah wah you’re a Democrat!” would stop. Sheesh.
-C