Privilege & Manipulation in Public Discourse

Privilege & Manipulation in Public Discourse

My project community is the small town political campaign committee I am involved in until Nov. 2, 2010. The mission of the campaign is to help educate the Benton County community of interested and voters on the pros associated with NOT relocating a historic county seat and court house.

The community is comprised of 10 of the the small town's "city fathers (privileged)" and four "girls." Most of the members are in their late 50s to early 60s. There are three 30-something members, the city manager and a professional marketer and several local attorneys. Many members are second and third generation locals. The hallmarks are successful business owner, money-ed, former elected official, current elected official, town leader or a specialist in a field, such as marketing. I am one of the three women and the wild card (woman, no relative community standing, no influence, no money to burn).

As a whole, the committee-community is very conservative (dare I say Republican), very old-school and linear in their approaches to getting things done (formal meetings on Wednesday, with full presentations, group vote on all agenda items). One of the members has been in the "Move the Courthouse" fray since 1984 and is the group's historian. She and the current mayor are somewhat schooled in campaigning, but the group as a whole appears is not versed research and its value or in the value and advantages of social mediums (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) and their networking capabilities and the importance of the mediums. Market research they conceptually understand is important, but they are not sure what it is they need, how to obtain it and the most effective way to use it.

When I arrived on the campaign just after Labor Day, the group had agreed upon the campaign's arguments, was fundraising, had just distributed buttons, walked the local parade route, was building a county-wide list of places to talk/debate/discuss the issue. This was the meat of the campaign strategy.

Emergent Technologies and

Campaign Strategies

Initially Employed

Buttons, fliers, window signs, participating in a hometown parade, face to face meetings with service and business groups, Letters to the Editor, Facebook. These technologies are outdated at best, and designed to disseminate information on a small scale, such as our small town of 5,000, on non-emergent, "day to day issues." The technologies/methods originally to be employed were not matched to the voter demographic which in part are: voters are men and women, 18-99; make an average of $30,000 + a year and of those who are active voters, have voted consistently in an average of the last seven (7) elections.

Emergent Technologies and

Campaign Strategies

Now (and soon) to be employed

With some subtle nudging and strategizing, the campaign blitz now has, or will employ: Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, signage on hot air balloons, signage on cars traveling to Tri-Cities, electronic newspaper advertising, print newspaper advertising, TV ads during upcoming WSU and Boise State football games; Letters to the Editor, local print newspaper advertising, Interstate exit info banner, targeted phoning, use of graphic artist to create caricature graphic to brand postcard mailer, volunteers to go door to door, direct engagement with the media and community groups, spanning high school to seniors, active solicitation of volunteers, solicitation of endorsements of local municipalities and organizations, a Courthouse Caravan and sign wavers in high traffice areas are planned.

Purposeful selection of media vendors in Tri-Cities specifically to build good will and provide another method of dissemination.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Keep-Prosser-the-Benton-County-Seat/125483824168157?ref=ts

http://twitter.com/BentonCoSeat

Page E1, hard copy 9/26/10 Tri-City Herald forum page, front page letter.

COMMONPLACE 1

The first commonplace shocking to me in my first campaign committee meeting was, all the men in the group were, without asking, deferring all the tasks to the one woman, who is the paid meeting convener. She was diligently taking notes of all requested assignments and tasks. The note taker was no more a secretary to the group than the man elected chair and spokesperson. The common place was no one was asking who should be the organizer, it was assumed this ultra-organized woman would be; no one was asking how the duties should be parsed up, broken down, disseminated into work groups or by committee member strength: they were all handed without discussion to the note taker. There were no calendar, time-line, volunteer list, duties assigned or general (visual) organizational document in place which holds members accountable. It is assumed if you are present you will participate. But the products and outcomes of the meetings were slow, not nimble, with shots of pellets in the dark...hope we hit the target.

COMMONPLACE 2

The second commonplace is the absolute belief that the opinions and business models held by these successful business owners and employed in their businesses and organizations are the same and right ones for an emotional, brutal countywide campaign. Therefore, their words and decisions are the first, the last and the unquestioned. They assumed they were right and there would be an underling to perform all the tasks.

6 ARGUMENTS EMPLOYED by Measure Proponents

Here is the manipulation:

Note: I studied the six proponent arguments using our Ancient Rhetorics (Crowley & Hawley, Pearson, Longman, 4th Edition), but opted to use Dr. Michael C. Labossiere's Fallacy Tutorial (http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/) for purposes of easier dissection and sharing.

1. Kennewick is center of the universe (center of the county, community with the largest population) and is therefore, more deserving of Courthouse designation than the small town where it has resided since 1905.
Why this is a False Dilemma fallacy:
A False Dilemma is a fallacy in which a person uses the following pattern of "reasoning":

1. Either claim X is true or claim Y is true (when X and Y could both be false).
2. Claim Y is false.
3. Therefore claim X is true.

This line of "reasoning" is fallacious because if both claims could be false, then it cannot be inferred that one is true because the other is false. That this is the case is made clear by the following example:

1. Either 1+1=4 or 1+1=12.
2. It is not the case that 1+1=4.
3. Therefore 1+1=12.

2. Bigger population trumps history. It's an either or situation. It's either Kennewick or Prosser, there is no third alternative in county with 10 communities.
3. There is a flaw in the law which says more of the judicial system should take place in Prosser than currently does; proponents say the flaw couldn't possibly be fixed by the legislature. 4. History means nothing. It should take the backseat to needs of a relatively select few – Lawyers, county employees and judges, who believe they and their work is more important than the whole of the taxpayers so we should spend millions to accommodate them.

Arguments 2., 3. and 4. all fall under the Appeal to the Consequence of a Belief fallacy:
The Appeal to the Consequences of a Belief is a fallacy that comes in the following patterns:

1. X is true because if people did not accept X as being true then there would be negative consequences.
2. X is false because if people did not accept X as being false, then there would be negative consequences.
3. X is true because accepting that X is true has positive consequences.
4. X is false because accepting that X is false has positive consequences.
5. I wish that X were true, therefore X is true. This is known as Wishful Thinking.
6. I wish that X were false, therefore X is false. This is known as Wishful Thinking.

This line of "reasoning" is fallacious because the consequences of a belief have no bearing on whether the belief is true or false.

5. The cost of relocating a courthouse and its inhabitants will cost "nothing," say proponents; will cost a minimum of $3.5 million up to $7.6 million, say the hired consultants; http://www.co.benton.wa.us/newsView.aspx?nid=40; the newspaper of the County record, the Tricityherald.com says all the arguments are murky, the true costs are not known, so let's just move the thing and get it over with.

Why is this a fallacy of a Biased Sample?
This fallacy is committed when a person draws a conclusion about a population based on a sample that is biased or prejudiced in some manner. It has the following form:

1. Sample S, which is biased, is taken from population P.
2. Conclusion C is drawn about Population P based on S.

The person committing the fallacy is misusing the following type of reasoning, which is known variously as Inductive Generalization, Generalization, and Statistical Generalization:

1. X% of all observed A's are B''s.
2. Therefore X% of all A's are Bs.

The fallacy is committed when the sample of A's is likely to be biased in some manner. A sample is biased or loaded when the method used to take the sample is likely to result in a sample that does not adequately represent the population from which it is drawn.

6. Four sitting Superior Court judges (privileged and influential) signed a document endorsing the move as creating greater efficiencies for their judicial system and themselves, therefore, as role models and enforcers of justice, they must know best.
Why this is an Appeal to Authority fallacy:
Appeal to Authority is a fallacy with the following form:

1. Person A is (claimed to be) an authority on subject S.
2. Person A makes claim C about subject S.
3. Therefore, C is true.

This fallacy is committed when the person in question is not a legitimate authority on the subject. More formally, if person A is not qualified to make reliable claims in subject S, then the argument will be fallacious.

In summary, my project community is a group of successful (privileged) business owners from a conservative, self-reliant, small community who initially were going to employ archaic and mismatched tactics to a diverse demographic of voters who will be considering a county-wide issue of historic proportions. The original list of tactics felt like David taking a stick instead of a bazooka to meet up with Goliath. The project community is 2/7 men who initially delegated all the tasks to one woman in the work group. The project community received, and was receptive to, some new input employing additional social networking and other more contemporary and better matched mediums for this political campaign; they also took on targeted volunteer roles. We will see come November 2, 2010, 8 p.m., if their better matched strategies hit their target.