False Choices & Phrase Addiction

If, in the near future, someone compiles a collection of great rhetoric by American Presidents, Washington, Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan will be found in the table of contents. George W. Bush will be lucky if he is included in the index, and the reference will not be flattering.

President Bush (43), like his father (41), had a hard time stringing an English sentence together. President Obama (44) does not seem to suffer from the same speech impediment. He does in fact get tongue-tied a lot, but he usually managed to come with subject, verb, and object. He is not given to mangling words.

President Obama does, however, suffer grievously from phrase addiction. How many times has he said "let me be clear"? How many stars are in a clear night sky? How many times has the President said: "my highest priority"?

The problem is deeper than mere redundancy. When the President says "let me be perfectly clear" it usually means that he is about to be perfectly opaque, or about to say something that is contradicted elsewhere in the same speech, paragraph, or sound bite. As for the President's "highest priority", it turns out that this is the only kind of priority that the President has. Virtually everything the President thinks worth of mention is his highest priority.

I am not the only one who has noticed the President's dysfunctional phrase addiction. Ruth Marcus, at the Washington Post, finds one that I had missed: the "false choice".

The false choice phrase is a rhetorical con job, a "dodge" as Marcus puts it. She documents three distinct versions of the dodge. Here is one:

The first, a particular Obama specialty, is the false false choice. Set up two unacceptable extremes that no one is seriously advocating and position yourself as the champion of the reasonable middle ground between these unidentified straw men.

For example:

Obama on financial reform: "We need not choose between a chaotic and unforgiving capitalism and an oppressive government-run economy. That is a false choice that will not serve our people or any people." [P]lease find me the advocate of either extreme.

The purpose of this false false choice is make it look as though everyone who disagrees with Obama is on the absurd extremes and his policy is the only one in the sensible middle. In fact no one is on the extremes. A lot of people are advocating positions in the middle, but the President is trying to close off the debate.

Marcus presents two more versions of the false choice dodge and documents Obama's use of it. Give her essay a read.

The false choice dodge always functions to discredit any opposition. Barack Obama has always been most comfortable when he can agree with everyone in the room. That is much easier than exercising moral autonomy and forming one's own opinions. He has never learned how to engage with someone who honestly disagrees with him or with the crowd whose opinion he has adopted.

Marcus is a liberal who ought to be on the President's side. However, she is also an honest and independent mind. She sees the shallowness and sleight of hand in the President's rhetoric.

I point out that, as she documents, the President uses the "false choice" phrase again and again ad nauseam. The President's words won't make it into a collection of great political rhetoric. But if someone publishes a collection of Presidential clichés and rhetorical dodges, he'll get his own chapter.

Comments

[caheidelberger]

Could it be that the rhetorical instance you cite actually shows the President challenging the unrealistic rhetoric used by opponents? There are Republicans who engage in hyperbole about the Soviet oppression of a government-run economy. There are Democrats (including me) who have hyperbolically branded Republican deregulation proposals as Russian anarcho-capitalism (funny how Russia can be the boogeyman for both sides). You're right: few if any politicians are advocating such outcomes. Could the President be making that point and urging people to get off the wild rhetoric and come make practical solutions?

[Anne]

One may quibble endlessly about the overuse of a phrase one finds personally annoying, but Marcus is dead wrong when she says Obama has mischaracterized positions that have been stated. I especially found this true concerning Libya: "On the one hand, some question why America should intervene at all - even in limited ways - in this distant land." Meanwhile, he noted, others "have suggested that we broaden our military mission beyond the task of protecting the Libyan people and do whatever it takes to bring down [Libyan leader Moammar] Gaddafi and usher in a new government."

It characterizes exactly the choices suggested by McCain, Graham, Kucinich--all of which can be verified with video clips.

[Donald Pay]

False choices heard from some:

Believe in God or go to Hell.
Cut spending or the increasing debt destroys America.
Invade Iraq or face Saddam's weapons of mass destruction.

[Jon S.]

While I get Donald's larger point the examples he uses are not "false choices" as defined by Marcus and Blanchard. Those are assertions which may or may not be true. Those who made/make the claims listed by Donald believe part of what they are saying to be true (i.e, God exists, debt is destroying America, and Saddam posed a significant threat). The false choice means putting out there two ideas you believe are NOT true so as to make your position seem like the sane/moderate one. So if I said, "Some people say you must believe in God to go to heaven, others say God doesn't exist. We should reject these false choices and realize there is a God but he just wants us to be happy here on Earth" then I'd be setting up the "false choice." I think the logical fallacy Donald is really condemning is the "false dilemma" (if you don't agree with me, you and the world will literally go to Hell). The "false choice" is a cousin of the false dilemma, but is not the same.

[Donald Pay]

The false choice and false dilemma pose the same logical problem. Those on the extremes tend to use the false dilemma. Moderates tend to use the false choice.

[Ken Blanchard]

Cory: No. The problem is that the President is using the false choice as a dodge, in lieu of making a case for his policies.

Anne: the problem with the President's use of "let me be perfectly clear" and "my highest priority" is not that the phrases are irritating. Only the overuse is irritating. The problem is that he is rarely the one and has way too many of the other.

Yes, a lot of people believe that we should stay out of Libya altogether and others believe as say we should go all in. Those are real alternatives. Calling these "false choices" is a dodge.

[Giovy]

A FOR-REAL note from a relative of Snoop Dogg's who is, in fact, a Mormon. My reply to him was that the story was apntlepary not a report but a prophecy.According to Snoop's relative: The picture is fake. But I did leave a Book of Mormon at their house. They do know that I am Mormon. Matter of fact, they knew about the passing of President Hinckley without me telling them. They are knowledgeable of the church because of me. At first I thought the picture was real. But I noticed that the top finger of Snoop's was not his. I did call them to confirm if it was a joke or not. Because if anything, I would have known first. HMMMMMMM. Is it just a matter of time???

[Bashkim]

Tools & Widgets | Podcasts | Blogs | CNN Mobile | Preferences | Email Alerts | CNN Radio | CNN Shop | Site MapCNN en Espac5ˆol | Arabic | Japanese | Korean | TurkishInternational Edition | CNN TV | CNN International | Headline News | TranscriptsYou Just Got April Fooled! Snoop's Not Mormon YET!Terms of service | Privacy gldeiuines | Advertise with us | About us | Contact us | HelpCopied directly from the bottom of the article.