On the show, Norquist took an absolutist approach to spending, claiming that "taxes should never be raised" and instead should be replaced by lowering spending by Congress. The problem with this is that Norquist refuses to see any other options. This was mostly highlighted when he claimed that the 2010 elections, which he claims were "an election won against spending." This is a major problem with Norquist and many of the anti-tax Republicans; they refuse to look at anything on a wide scope, and demand to get what they want, even if they don't even know the whole picture.
Shortly after Norquist's remark, host Jon Stewart noted that the election was won on "both [spending and taxes] and a few other things." This two second answer completely reveals the problem with politics in general; people are unwilling to to acknowledge a grey area, and have turned politics into a right vs. wrong mentality.
I also found it interesting how Norquist explained the fact that America faced a deficit with the previous three republican presidents, and a surplus under Clinton. To counter this, he claimed that lower taxes actually helped boost America's revenue before Clinton, but it went into effect while he was in office, but his policies caused the economy to once again fall apart when Bush took over.
Now, you could easily say that his opinion matters in the argument, but to me, he's just completely ignorant to how the economy actually works, and refuses to acknowledge the facts. The fact he runs a PAC that has such strong control over the republican party is a major threat to the sanctity of our government as a whole.
To see Norquist on the Daily Show, click here
In one of my other classes, we've been talking about logical fallacies. The erroneous logic of presenting a rigid dichotomy -- either this, or either that, but no in between -- is called false dilemma. Nice picking up on this!
ReplyDeleteThis is pretty much why I'm an Independent; I'm taking the middle approach and not the "right or wrong" approach. Hopefully I'll be able to live in a time where political parties aren't nonsense.
ReplyDeleteThis is absurd! He can't create such an argument if he refuses to acknowledge the actual situation at hand and the other potential solutions!
ReplyDeleteToday in politics nothing ever gets done because of people that are so hard headed in their political stances. Sometimes you have to be able to give a little for the betterment of the government, and I do not think this guy will ever understand that.
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