Trump, Biden, and Defunding the Police: Once Again, Trump Suffers from Talking Points Disease

Donald Trump, White House photo

Alas, like many politicians before him, President Donald Trump has fallen ill from the Talking Points Disease. He repeated a common but false talking point because he had not taken time to inform himself. Relying on ridiculous conservative talking points instead of research, Trump falsely accused likely Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden of seeking to defund the police. Fox News correspondent Chris Wallace made him look silly. The cure is for speakers to inform themselves before they speak.

What Is Talking Points Disease?

The Talking Points Disease occurs when a someone repeats prepared political talking points but has no idea what they mean, much less whether they are true. Talking points are not ideas; they’re just empty words. Political parties often prepare talking points for their politicians, not to mention their media friends. They print these up and hand them out to supporters. Often they try to keep them secret, but sometimes they post their talking points on the Internet. Rarely are these talking points accurate.

Earlier: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton Suffered from Talking Points Disease in their 2016 Debates

For example, political operative Frank Luntz's famous memo about Republican 9/11 talking points advised Republicans to say things like, "Communicate that you are leading the fight for the principles of freedom and security." Lutz offered sample passages entitled "Words that Work." Politicians didn't need to understand any of this; they just needed to say the words. Republicans who used Luntz' talking points and "words that work" won several elections.

What Was Trump's Biden / “Abolish the Police” Talking Point?

In this case, Trump repeated a conservative talking point, that Biden wants to defund and abolish the police. Of course, “Defund the Police” is a left-wing talking point that the more extreme politicians mindlessly spread. Usually, what they really mean is that they want to reallocate some police funding toward social spending and social work.

Earlier: Mike Lee Suffered from Talking Points Disease in His Ridiculous Seahorse Speech 

Conservatives lay out talking points in media outlets that liberals don’t even notice. That works out well for them; they don’t need to keep their tactics secret if oblivious liberals don’t bother to look. For example, writing in the conservative The Federalist a few weeks ago, David Marcus wrote that Biden would simply give in to defunding the police. 

Marcus’ accusation (like many others) lays out standard conservative talking points. Nevertheless, Marcus hedged his statement and never quite said outright that Biden sought to abolish the police. Instead, “Defund the Police” gave him a theme that helped him spin out a conspiracy theory. No doubt he hoped to hoodwink conservative voters. Instead, he, or someone like him, or maybe somebody on Twitter who said the same thing, hoodwinked President Trump. The problem comes when people, like President Trump, begin to believe their own propaganda.

So, using talking points that he did not understand, Trump had an interesting exchange during a Rose Garden interview with Fox News correspondent Chris Wallace. Wallace asked why the shootings and violence in cities seem to have become so much worse. Trump responded that the Democrats run cities poorly and added:

“It’s really because they want to defund the police. And Biden wants to defund the police.”

Wallace interrupted Trump and said,

“Sir, he does not.”

Trump interrupted Wallace and said,

“Look, he signed a charter with Bernie Sanders…”

Wallace interrupted in turn:

“And he said nothing about defunding the police.”

Irritated, Trump sneered and said,

“Oh really, it says abolish, it says defund . . .” He then snapped, “Let’s go get me the charter, please.”

Trump’s staff obtained the charter summary. Trump looked through it, as Wallace explained later, “But he couldn’t find any indication, because there isn’t any, that Joe Biden has sought to defund and abolish the police.” Wallace chuckled.

So, Trump repeated a talking point, but Wallace, who was better-prepared, caught him red-handed. This time around, Trump generated plenty of self-induced bad publicity. PolitiFact gave Trump's claim a Pants on Fire rating. National newspaper USA Today promptly described the embarrassing exchange. Forbes entitled their story "Trump Wrongly Suggests Biden Supports Defunding the Police in Fox News Interview."

Oh, the Talking Points Disease!

Trump's Rose Garden debacle teaches us several lessons about the Talking Points Disease.

First, speakers need research. There is no substitute, and I mean none, for being a well-informed speaker. “Defund the Police” is a slogan, not information. Trump needed to inform himself about Biden’s policy positions. He obviously did not.

Earlier: Speakers Need Research: Trump and Bleach Injections

Second, talking points are, by their nature, shallow, phony, and meaningless. “Defund the Police” is a superficial slogan to begin with. Apparently, it never occurred to Trump that Biden would have laid out a more nuanced position.

Most people would like to think that our leaders know more about what’s going on than the rest of us. But politicians who suffer from Talking Points Disease know less than the rest of us, not more. In this case, kudos to Chris Wallace for correcting Trump so quickly and efficiently.

The worst part is that Trump believed his own talking points. He was so convinced that he barked at his staff to get him the document. The document did not support him. Oops! Unlike Trump, Wallace had done his homework. He had read the Biden-Sanders document and knew what it said.

When I was on my college debate team many years ago, the best debaters I encountered on the circuit were not the glib fast talkers. No, indeed, the best debaters showed up for the contest with the best research. They knew the debate topic from front to back. They carried files of facts, quotations, and statistics ready for whatever happened during the debate. Yet, we live in an era when facts are disparaged and conspiracy theorists seem to rule the nation. Beware of Talking Points Disease! Talking points sometimes win elections, but Talking Points Disease can put a constitutional republic into the ICU.

P.S. "Defund the Police" is a ridiculous slogan. "Reform the Police" conveys what most liberals really want, and "Defund" just gives ammunition for, well, conservative talking points.

Shaktikanta Das Gave a Central Banker's Perspective on the Coronavirus Depression

Shaktikanta Das, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), just gave an important speech about India’s economic outlook. Das' speech taught worldwide lessons about economic recovery during the coronavirus pandemic. Like all good speakers, he knew to emphasize his central point with forceful language and repetition.

While President Donald Trump and his people are pushing the United States’ economy and schools to reopen while the pandemic reaches across the land, Das pointed out what we all should have noticed: that the pandemic itself creates the obstacle to economic recovery.

In his speech, given online in English to the Seventh Conclave of the State Bank of India, Das wisely put the pandemic foremost:

"The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic is unambiguously the worst health and economic crisis in the last 100 years during peace time with unprecedented negative consequences for output, jobs and well-being. It has dented the existing world order, global value chains, labour and capital movements across globe and needless to say, the socio-economic conditions of large section of world population."

Although central banks usually focus on such mundane technicalities as interest rates and money supply, those arcane numbers do not give people food to eat, roofs over their heads, or healthcare for their children. Instead, real-world economic activity requires people to go to work and to produce, sell, and buy the goods and services that they desire. The pandemic, however, has blasted ordinary economic activity to pieces.

At the same time, a central banker cannot control the pandemic; all Das could do in his official role was to ensure that India’s financial system continued to work. He announced policies to increase India’s financial liquidity, cut interest rates, and to ensure that India’s banks were financially stable. Yes, those are properly his functions, but he never let the pandemic escape his audience’s notice. In fact, in his speech, which was about economics, he mentioned the word "pandemic" 12 times. For example:

"As a part of response to the pandemic the RBI has undertaken a series of measures which are already in the public domain."  

"While the multipronged approach adopted by the Reserve Bank has provided a cushion from the immediate impact of the pandemic on banks, the medium-term outlook is uncertain and depends on the COVID-19 curve."

"It is . . .still uncertain when supply chains will be restored fully; how long will it take for demand conditions to normalise; and what kind of durable effects the pandemic will leave behind on our potential growth." [italics supplied]

Earlier Post: Fed Chair Janet Yellen's Calm Speaking Style 

The general public pays little attention to the economic pronouncements of the world’s central bankers. The financial community, however, listens to every word. These calm, measured speeches often convey a lot of wisdom, and Das’ calmly-delivered speech, filled as it was with technical jargon, powerfully conveyed a central message: that the key to economic recovery is to make intelligent, hard-nosed decisions to control the spread of disease. Central banks can keep money flowing through the banking system, but they cannot get people safely back to work, provide a healthful environment in schools, or preserve supply chains that break down when the workers get sick. Public health measures need to come first, while the bankers can only do what they can do. And, yes, India's huge economy matters to all of us. Despite the angry, irrational calls for isolationism and trade restrictions, the world’s economy has been globalized for centuries. Lessons from one part of the world apply everywhere. 

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell made similar statements in May. It’s a simple message. Are the United States' elected officials listening? 

Congratulations to the Lincoln East High School Speech Team

East Lincoln High School

Congratulations to the Lincoln East High School speech team for their outstanding performance at The National Speech and Debate Tournament. Once at the tournament, they qualified for the elimination rounds of various events. One of the Lincoln East students, Victoria Thomas, qualified to speak during the final round in Poetry, and placed second in the nation for Poetry Interpretation. Due to the coronavirus epidemic, the organizers wisely decided to conduct the contest online.

Simply qualifying to participate in this tournament is a tremendous honor, roughly equivalent to getting an invitation to the NCAA basketball tournament. Only the very best high school speech students participate.

By developing their communication skills at such an early age, these fine young people are preparing themselves for success in life. Experience speaking in public, especially at such a high level of excellence, will stand them well as they go through life. The students learn to express themselves orally, to speak with confidence, and to convey their ideas and emotions clearly and persuasively. Speech skills never go out of style. 

Earlier Post: Greybull High School's Speech Team

Extracurricular activities are not really extras. Indeed, I learned more than I can explain from my many excellent teachers in high school and college. Few of them, however, made as much impression on me as my participation in my high school and college debate teams, high school literary magazine, and college newspaper, The Flat Hat. My own coaches and faculty advisors from many years ago, especially Barbara Sue Carter, Pat Micken, Richard Poinsett, and Donald McConkey, taught both by instruction and example. 

It’s particularly impressive that the East Lincoln students continued in their extracurricular activities when everything is so difficult. Special congratulations are also due to their coaches, English teachers Nick Herink and Elle Barts. Leading their students to such a high level of excellence during a health crisis represents a remarkable effort on their part, for which, I imagine, the school probably offered them little compensation.

Also, special thanks to their local newspaper, the Lincoln Journal-Star, which covered the speech team with the enthusiasm usually reserved for athletics. 

Image: Jared Winkler, Creative Commons License

Did Donald Trump Turn Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. into a Conformist Right-Wing Fanatic? I Don’t Think So, but He Tried. Let’s Look at the Mount Rushmore Speech

In his July 3, 2020 Mount Rushmore speech, President Donald Trump complained about mob rule and the destruction of history: “Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children.” To support his frightening warning, Trump cited – drumroll! – nonviolent protestor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Co-opting King’s message to mean the exact opposite of what King said, Trump turned a vision of unity and justice into division, driven by the hidebound refusal to change.

We learn history by studying the past. Trump, however, reversed the past while pretending to revere our heritage

Trump’s speech brought demonstrations by Lakota complaining that the government had stolen Mount Rushmore from them. The event featured strict anti-social distancing policies during the coronavirus pandemic (the chairs were zip-tied together). Trump's rambling speech threw out right-wing tropes faster than a jai alai player flings balls.

Trump Cited Martin Luther King, Jr.

But the press overlooked that Trump, who recently tweeted a video of a man shouting “White Power,” called on the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to endorse his ideas. He did so by referring to King's famous "I Have a Dream." Trump's brazen rhetorical move highlighted his goal to block social change at all costs.

Trump said:

“They would tear down the principles that propelled the abolition of slavery in America and, ultimately, around the world, ending an evil institution that had plagued humanity for thousands and thousands of years. Our opponents would tear apart the very documents that Martin Luther King used to express his dream, and the ideas that were the foundation of the righteous movement for Civil Rights. They would tear down the beliefs, culture, and identity that have made America the most vibrant and tolerant society in the history of the Earth.”

Shortly after, Trump misleadingly pretended that King endorsed America's foundational values:

“We must demand that our children are taught once again to see America as did Reverend Martin Luther King, when he said that the Founders had signed “a promissory note” to every future generation. Dr. King saw that the mission of justice required us to fully embrace our founding ideals. Those ideals are so important to us — the founding ideals. He called on his fellow citizens not to rip down their heritage, but to live up to their heritage. (Applause.)”

That is, of course, nothing like what King said. Trump is incorrect. So, let's now look at King's own words. 

Link: Martin Luther King's "I Have Been to the Mountaintop:" A Speech for the Ages

But Trump Missed King’s Point

 King did not endorse America’s social order; instead, he called on the nation to change and live up to its founding ideals. This is what he said in the “I Have a Dream” speech passage to which Trump referred:

“When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the ‘unalienable Rights’ of ‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’ It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.”

So, King did not say to lay down and accept how things were; he called on the nation to offer the human rights that the Declaration of Independence promised. Instead, King wanted us to ask, how could we have social order if we lacked justice? Indeed, King’s famous speech discussed issues that could have been torn from 2020’s headlines:

“We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.”

Quoting the prophet Isaiah, King said:

“We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until ‘justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.’”

Despite King's hope, stories of police brutality still fill the news in 2020 and send protesters into the streets. Trump recently tweeted that a Black Lives Matter leader favored "Treason, Sedition, Insurrection." And we still find conservative politicians, including in my home state of Texas, working with all their might to make it hard for minorities to cast their ballots. Former Department of Justice voting rights prosecutor Justin Levitt recently said that, “The reversals in Texas voter ID and redistricting should be scandalous.” I testify from my own experience that obtaining a Texas ID is a nightmarish experience. Trump was not trying to fulfill King's vision; on the contrary, Trump wanted to overturn it. Yet, Trump twisted King's words to support his own views.

Link: Martin Luther King's "Give Us the Ballot" Used Christian Concepts

No, King did not tell people to accept the status quo. On the contrary, in his “Letter from a Birmingham City Jail,” he asked, what were White churchgoers thinking when the “bruised and weary Negro men and women decided to rise from the dark dungeons of complacency to the bright hills of creative protest?" He said “creative protest.” Not submission.


A Clash of Values

Yet, in his Mount Rushmore speech, Trump said not one word about voting rights or police brutality, instead complaining about “angry mobs” who protested racism. Instead of speaking for justice, Trump complained about a “left-wing cultural revolution” that “is designed to overthrow the American Revolution.” Unlike King, Trump made social stability, not justice, his prime value. According To Trump's speech,

“The radical ideology attacking our country advances under the banner of social justice. But in truth, it would demolish both justice and society.”

Which shall be the United States of America’s central value? Justice, or social order? A true conservative, Trump asserted that we can have no justice without social order. But King denied that we could enjoy social order if we lacked justice. While praising history in his Mount Rushmore speech, Trump made a bold excursion into historical unreality. He reversed King's values along the way. 

Technical note: Prosopopoeia is a classic rhetorical trope in which a speaker pretends to be speaking for someone else. This works best when the speaker pretends to be speaking for someone who is dead, like Martin Luther King, Jr., who cannot complain about being misquoted. Other examples might be, “your grandfather would turn over in his grave,” or “our Founding Fathers would never want to tear down a statue.” We often call upon revered figures to support our own ludicrous ideas. It always sounds traditional. This is what Trump did when he cited, twisted, and misquoted Martin Luther King, Jr.

Prosopopoeia” is a Greek word that means “personality.”

Thanks to my graduate school classmate Martin Medhurst and his intrepid team at AmericanRhetoric.com for publishing a definitive text of King's speech.

Image: National Park Service