The Talking Points Disease: The Sad Case of Mike Lee's Have More Babies Speech

Mike Lee's Climate Change Speech

Talking points are not debate points. Talking points harm our national dialogue. Most politicians try to win elections by targeting groups of people who hold particular attitudes. The politicians learn what their target voters believe, and then they parrot those opinions back to their target voters. Often, the politicians have no idea what the issues really are and have no clue why people care about them.

We talk about issues when we compare a policy's pros and cons. We use talking points when someone feeds us arguments that we don't understand about issues we know nothing about. Most politicians spew out talking points. Few of them know a blessed thing about issues. This is no way to run a country.


Mike Lee's GND Speech
So, let us talk some more about Arizona Senator Mike Lee’s embarrassing speech yesterday about climate change. A nonbinding Green New Deal (GND) resolution,sponsored by Senator Edward Markey, called for dramatic action to reduce the speed of climate change and reduce income inequality. Conservatives predictably responded by ridiculing the proposal rather than talking about the issues that it raises.

Lee claimed to have read the GND (I am reluctant to believe him) and said that it was ridiculous. To prove that it was ridiculous, he misstated what the GND said. He said that the GND would outlaw cows and air travel. Lee’s speech used visual aids showing Ronald Reagan riding a dinosaur, Aquaman doing something, and commuters riding seahorses to Hawaii. He concluded that the solution to climate change was to have more babies. Easily amused people thought this was funny, while people with brains and judgment think that Lee made a fool of himself.

Lee didn’t attack the GND’s real points; instead, he attacked a fictional version of the GND that conservative talking points had created. FactCheck.org notes that, although draft documents suggested reducing cattle agriculture and air travel, the resolution itself does not mention cows or propose to abolish airplanes. So, Lee overstated what the draft document said while refuting points that the resolution did not mention. Lee didn't exactly lie about the GND, but he didn't exactly tell the truth, either.


The Rise of the Talking Points
When the GND came out, conservatives quickly announced their talking points, all of which were ridiculous exaggerations: the Green New Deal will abolish cows and get rid of air travel, even for overseas areas. Senator Mitch McConnell tweeted, I kid you not: “We're going to vote in the Senate and see how many Democrats want to end air travel and cow farts.”

Worse, Senator Rick Scott published an op-ed in the Orlando Sentinel that said:

“If you are not familiar with it, here’s the cliff notes version: it calls for rebuilding or retrofitting every building in America in the next 10 years, eliminating all fossil fuels in 10 years, eliminating nuclear power, and working towards ending air travel (to be replaced with high-speed rail).

“There are even crazier things in this ‘Green New Deal,’ but why bother, it’s not a serious policy idea; it’s a unicorn. It’s like an idea conceived in a dorm room or the dark back room of a liberal think-tank by people who have never had a real job in their lives.”

These talking points are not serious arguments; they are hyperbolic accusations that feed people’s phobias. Once stated, however, conservatives ran with them. That’s why Mike Lee gave his absurd speech that claiming people in Hawaii would need to ride seahorses to get to the mainland. Conservative media praised Lee, probably because they were already ridiculing the GND themselves.

What about the GND? I have not yet formed an opinion about the GND. Is it a good plan or nor? I don't know. But the fact that the GND's opponents attack it only by misrepresenting it makes me think that the GND must have merit.

Do You Believe Your Own Talking Points? Oops!
Great speakers and writers love hyperbole. The problem comes when you start to believe your own talking points. If you embellish your argument by joking that the GND wants to abolish airplanes, that might be OK. Trouble comes when you start to believe your own jokes. Lee, McConnell, and Scott did not do their research. They didn’t know what the GND said; they were not funny, they did not come to grips with the proposal's points, and they were not persuasive. They were just confused.

By the way, Democrats are just as bad to spew out talking points they do not understand. I will try to write about them in the next day or two.

I first got interested in political communication during my years as a high school and college debater and later a college debate coach. To win a debate, you do your research. The side with better research can set the agenda and win the debate. Politicians, with their secret polls and focus groups and media consultants, have forgotten about the issues. Voters have not. Politicians use talking points; voters care about making their lives better.

To cure the talking points disease: do your research. Learn the issues in depth. Know your topic. Make real arguments that mean something. Who knows? Voters might like it.

P.S. to planners: Businesses, schools, and agencies often circulate draft copies for comment. Politicians should never circulate drafts; they are just inviting ridicule. Oops to them, too. Publishing the draft was a bad, wrong, stupid mistake. Dumb. Careless. Only publish ideas when you are ready to debate and then stand by what you said. Once it's on the Internet, it lives forever. Oops again.

Also, here are two other recent posts about speeches that ridicule ideas:

Mike Lee's speech

Trump and ridicule


Image from Mike Lee's official website.Mike Lee's speech