Why Do Politicians Exaggerate? Nancy Pelosi's Fire-Breathing Tax Speech

Nancy Pelosi

I posted the other day about Nancy Pelosi's tax reform speech, in which she pitched to the galleries. Pelosi attacked tax reform with fire-breathing language. Did this help or hurt her case? That depends: to whom was she making her case?

For example, she said:

The Frankenstein’s monster of giveaways and special interest loopholes . . . 

Frankenstein's monster?

She also said, during the Christmas season, that:

In this time, the moral obscenity and unrepentant greed of the GOP tax scam stands out more clearly.

Moral obscenity? 

And she said:

The GOP tax scam is simply theft. Monumental, brazen theft – from the American middle-class and from every person who aspires to reach it.  The GOP tax scam is not a vote as an investment in growth or jobs.  It is a vote to instill a permanent plutocracy in our nation.  They’ll be cheering that later.

And so forth.

Now, Democratic partisans would agree with every word. Few Republicans would respond well to her strong language; most were probably offended. Writing in the conservative National Review, Rich Lowry ridiculed "Nancy Pelosi's tax apocalypse." Independent voters would probably consider her speech to be intemperate and implausible. Such strong language is highly polarizing: her true believers would respond well, while she would drive away everyone else. We have known since the 1948 Elmira, New York study that partisanship is the main determinant of how people vote. That is why voter turnout determines elections far more often than people actually change their minds. If Pelosi motivated her supporters to vote, then she might consider her speech successful.

Still, I would be happier if politicians spoke the simple truth. If your policy is better (and I think, for what it's worth, that the tax bill that Ms. Pelosi criticized is indeed a mistake), then you don't really need to overstate your case.  Reasoned discourse has a much milder, slower effect, but it might also reduce polarization a bit. The Bible says this: "A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger. The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright" (Proverbs 15:1-2). Not that I think that Ms. Pelosi was unwise, just that she overstated her case. 

Here's my earlier post about this speech.

Official US Congress photo