We’ve debunked, disproved, discredited all of these talking points in the conservative/liberal debate on democracy. We’ve pointed out every inconsistency, every half-baked thought, and backed them all up with facts and logical explanations. Still, every public statement by the GOP, every point of view uttered by a Conservative political pundit, and every online or face-to-face discussion with a right-wing voter inevitably includes one of these statements.?Although we’re tired of these arguments and they end all possibility of intelligent debate, here’s a handy guide to arguing against them.
1. “President Obama has divided the whole country by race. Race relations are worse than ever because of him!”
Where It Comes From: It’s hard to pin this one down to one person or one politician, but it’s easy to point to a single influence: Fox News. It’s an interesting way to twist the argument, even if it is rather infuriating. The logic says that the responsibility for the racism levied against the first black president does not lie with those who’ve made racist statements against him from the moment he announced his plans to join the 2008 Presidential race, but with the president, who has “pulled the race card” (see #10) every time he’s been opposed. Since President Obama has, at times, acknowledged the struggles of people of color, the Right likes to insist that he has added fuel to a fire that had previously been extinguished.
The Counter-Argument: People of color, as well as white allies, didn’t need the president or anyone else to highlight issues of racial inequality in our country. We knew they were there and had been calling for change long before 2008, although the reaction to our first president of color and the issues of race that were brought up in the inexcusably racist statements against him and his family after his election made the issue more salient.
The Most Important Thing To Add: Slavery. Jim Crow. The Civil Rights Movement. They’re glossing over a lot of American history by insisting that race relations are worse now than ever.
2. “Not all rape is ‘legitimate rape.'”
Where It Comes From: From that moment in 2012 when Todd Akin first uttered the words “legitimate rape,” and subsequently lost his seat in the House representing Missouri as a result, Republicans?should have learned that challenging and criticizing rape victims was a no-win situation for them. They still haven’t. Rick Brattin, Republican senator from (you guessed it) Missouri, recently proposed a bill that would require women to get permission from the man who impregnated her to have an abortion, except in cases of “legitimate rape.” Ann Coulter backed him up and even helped to define “legitimate rape” for us, stating that “unless a victim gets ‘hit on the head with a brick,’ it isn’t legitimate rape.”
The Counter-Argument: One more time, let’s discuss why including the word “legitimate” before every utterance of the word “rape” is so very offensive and ridiculous. Using Ann Coulter’s definition discredits so many different types of rape: date rape, marital rape, coerced rape, and rape of an incapacitated person. Not all rape includes injuries. Only 1/3 of all rapes are perpetrated by someone who is a stranger to their victim. Coerced sex, as in sex in the face of threats to kill a victim, her family, or her children, is also rape. Violating the body of a person too incapacitated by alcohol or drugs to defend themselves or reasonably give consent is rape.
The Most Important Thing To Add: We shouldn’t try to?discredit the claims of sexual assault victims by saying,”but that’s not ‘legitimate’ rape.” It’s already the most underreported crime that exists. Let’s stop trying to make it harder.
3. “Obama only cares about black people.”
Where It Comes From: Although this has been uttered by the most racist of the GOP since the election of Barack Obama in 2008, Republican Iowa Representative Steve King legitimized this fear on The G. Gordon Liddy Show in 2010 when he said:
“The President has demonstrated that he has a default mechanism in him that breaks down the side of race ? on the side that favors the black person.”
The Counter-Argument: Subscribing to this fear and using it as reasoning during a political debate ?(or a debate on democracy) sets up an image of white US citizens as victims of oppression under a president of color. However, there is no evidence to suggest that we suffer as a result of his presidency. This president has not ignored tragedies when white people have been victims. He has not refused to work on policies that are beneficial predominantly to white people. The difference between his presidency and many others has simply been this: He has not been blind to nor has he ignored tragedies and oppression that are predominantly faced by people of color.
The Most Important Thing To Add: The Right?never follows up that ridiculous statement by concluding that the 43 previous presidents only cared about white people, although many of them clearly did. They didn’t exactly see that as much of a tragedy, did they?
4. “I’m not a scientist.”
Where It Comes From:?This became a common and oft-repeated reply from GOP candidates in the 2014 election. Rick Scott, Republican governor of Florida, Mitch McConnell, Republican Senator from Kentucky and current Minority Leader of the Senate, and John Boehner, Speaker of the House and Representative from Ohio, all uttered this response during the 2014 mid-term elections when asked questions about climate change.
The Counter-Argument: This answer does little more, according to the New York Times, than serve as “a way to avoid being called a climate change denier but also to sidestep a dilemma.” We know they?aren’t scientists. No one ever claimed that they were. However, listening to the overwhelming majority of scientists would lead you to an understanding of the fact that “Scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal.” Either they’re aware of this, or they’re a climate change denier who either lacks the intelligence to see the facts or doesn’t care in favor of corporate profit and sponsorship. Ask them to either admit to one or the other, but tell them to stop reminding us that they aren’t a scientist. We already knew that.
The Most Important Thing To Add: These are the people voting against policy change introduced in Congress?in order to slow the process of climate change. Voting in these policies would affect their biggest funders, so saying “I’m not a scientist” underscores their lack of commitment?to addressing environmental needs and highlights their allegiance to money. Besides, we wouldn’t listen to someone who told us?”I’m not a doctor, but…I’ll amputate that leg for you.”
5.?”I’m tired of supporting people on welfare, especially the ones with nice clothes, nice cars, and cell phones.”
Where It Comes From:This one began all the way back in 1976 during Ronald Reagan’s failed presidential bid when he fed into white, racist fears of opportunistic and immoral people of color who were bilking the US government of millions and living the high life without working or paying taxes. The image of Reagan’s welfare queen persists nearly 40 years later in every single discussion of welfare, welfare reform, and the “culture of dependency.”
The Counter-Argument: So many arguments against this, so little time. First, it ignores the fact that people in poverty may or may not have always lived in poverty, they aren’t always dressed in rags, and they need to keep some of the tools of survival in the modern age (cars and cell phones are necessities when looking for work) even while seeking assistance during times of need. Second, it assumes that people who receive public assistance are opportunistic and greedy. Third, it pretends that those who need assistance refuse to work or support themselves, although the US currently has the highest number of working poor in history. . Fourth, it completely ignores the 1996 Welfare Reform Act, which only allows an individual to receive welfare assistance for five years and requires active participation in seeking employment after two. Fifth…okay, I could go on and on. Some people are just not worth arguing against, okay?
The Most Important Thing to Add:?The average American family pays about $6 per year in taxes toward all public assistance programs. Those same families pay about $6000 a year in taxes toward corporate welfare. Tell them to direct that anger appropriately, please.
6. “Liberals promote a war on Christmas.”
Where It Comes From: Right-wing political pundits have been fear-mongering and directing hatred towards liberals for some time on this one. Perusing articles at The Blaze?turns up hundreds of discussions about this, and Fox News?covers it endlessly during the holidays.
The Counter-Argument: There’s one big problem with this fear: it doesn’t exist. There is no “War on Christmas.” While liberals do believe that a separation of church and state were part of the foundation of our Constitution (which does mean that government agencies should stop promoting one religious holiday or religious tenet over another), no one’s trying to stop Christmas. They’re welcome to keep celebrating Christmas, no matter what political party they claim. Liberals only ask that our government to not marginalize those who don’t.
The Most Important Thing To Add: No one’s coming to take down their tree and there are no petitions asking stores to stop selling nativity scenes. The fictional war on Christmas hasn’t affected them in any way. Carry on.
7. “Lincoln was a Republican. Democrats voted for slavery, it was Republicans who repealed it.”
Where It Comes From: First, let me be clear. This statement is 100 percent true. President Abraham Lincoln, the president who signed the Emancipation Proclamation in order to repeal slavery, was a Republican. Those who opposed him were Democrats. However, an ideological shift occurred when Southern Democrats, termed “Dixiecrats,” opposed Democrat Senator Hubert Humphreys’s efforts to repeal Jim Crow laws in 1944. That split prompted a change in which “clearer political and ideological lines began to be drawn between the Democrat and Republican parties as moderates and liberals converted from Republican to Democrat. Conservatives in the Democratic Party began to move to the increasingly conservative Republican Party.” The debate on democracy took on a different kind of nuances.
The Counter-Argument:?This one is too often tossed about in discussions of the racism inherent in policies supported by the GOP. Every time a liberal mentions that a policy or standpoint introduced or supported by the Republican party is racist, we’re reminded that the GOP didn’t used to be racist, as if that fixes everything. You can educate them on their own party by reciting the history of the split caused by Dixiecrats and their racist views, because most of them don’t know it.
The most important thing to remember: They don’t get to justify the racism in their political party by reminding others of?what their party used to be…before the 1940s.
8. “The PC police are taking our Constitutional rights away!”
Where It Comes From: Although this has been a battle fought for some time, ever since liberals began calling for politically correct language to be used in referring to minorities, the argument against it?became?very loud since certain celebrities began being publicly criticized and even fired from their jobs as a result of racist, sexist, and homophobic language. For instance, The Food Network dropped Paula Deen over racist statements that even she admitted she had said to and about her employees. Duck Dynasty‘s Phil Robertson was criticized and even temporarily saw his family’s reality television show cancelled after he made some seriously homophobic and racist statements during an interview with GQ. Right-wing pundits and politicians immediately declared the public outcry against these celebrities as a violation of their First Amendment rights, including GOP darling Sarah Palin, who came out in support of Robinson although she admitted that she hadn’t even read the article that included his statements.
The Counter-Argument: The First Amendment guarantees that the government cannot curtail what you say by placing you in jail, levying fines against you, or taking your civil liberties away based on what you say. Consumer activism, however, is not a curtailment of free speech. As citizens, we have the right to express our disapproval of an ideology and to withdraw our money from supporting businesses who then use that money to support those who make offensive remarks. In light of the corporate sponsorship of political parties that buy votes and limit the democratic process, consumer activism is more necessary than ever. Conservatives use it just as liberally (no pun intended) with sites such as onemillionmoms.com, in which supporters are encouraged to call, write, and petition businesses that sponsor television shows and ask them to withdraw that sponsorship because the show included statements or scenes that these viewers don’t want their children to see.
The Most Important Thing to Add: Paula Deen, Phil Robertson, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck are not in jail, despite the fact that each has made hideously discriminatory remarks. None of their rights have been violated under the First Amendment. They still have the right to continue being racist, sexist, homophobic, and complete idiots.
9. Three words: “The Race Card.”
Where It Comes From: This isn’t a new one. It’s been oft-repeated by white people who insist that they’re “tired of hearing about racism.” The phrase can be defined in the following way: When a person of color doesn’t get their way or gets into trouble for doing all of the awful things that those people do, they “pull the race card” by declaring that they’ve been a victim of racism. Yes, that’s really what they’re saying.
The Counter-Argument: When a person insists that people of color overuse “the race card,” I’m not sure they understand exactly what it is they’re implying, so help them out. They’re saying that people of color are opportunistic and not intelligent enough to define their own experiences. They’re saying that only white people get to define racism and determine when racism has occurred. Finally, they’re trying to define an experience of which they know nothing, one that they’ve never experienced and never will, by accusing people of color of “abusing the privilege” of the “race card.”
The most important thing to remember: A significant wage gap still exists between white people and people of color. People of color are incarcerated at an overwhelmingly higher rate than white people for the same crimes. That race card doesn’t seem to carry many advantages for people of color, does it?
10. “We must take away LGBT rights so they won’t indoctrinate our children/destroy the sanctity of marriage.”
Where It Comes From: The Religious Right, who have turned the Republican Party into more of a religious, Christian, watchdog group instead of a political party, has been using this one since the mid-90s when same-sex marriage became a defined goal of LGBT activist groups. Their theory holds that if same-sex couples are allowed to marry, the God-sanctioned marriage of traditional couples is somehow compromised. Mike Huckabee, former Republican governor of Alaska and possible presidential nominee in 2016, has promised to make this a key issue in the next race.?Rick Santorum, former Republican senator from Pennsylvania and 2012 presidential hopeful, has stated that same-sex marriage is “to blame for the increase in single mothers, and could lead to polygamy,” and that what Conservatives “need to do is reclaim what marriage is.”
The Counter-Argument: Not only is marriage any less recognized because same-sex couples are allowed to marry in 35 states, the divorce rates among traditional couples has not increased, there hasn’t been any significant increase in the numbers of same-sex couples, and no golden benefits have been rained down upon LGBT couples that have bypassed traditional couples. All that’s happened so far is…same-sex couples have gotten married. Period.
The Most Important Thing to Add: A lot of these same arguments were used when laws against interracial marriage began to be repealed. After those laws were a thing of the past, marriage didn’t change and they never became less “sanctified” as a result.
11. “We should drug test people on welfare!”
Where It Comes From: We could go back to Reagan’s “Welfare Queen” speech from 1976 (see #6 on this list), but the first GOP politician to actually attempt to implement it was Rick Scott, Republican governor from Florida. His reasoning? “We should have a zero tolerance policy for illegal drug use in families ? especially those families who struggle to make ends meet and need welfare assistance to provide for their children.” Because, of course, drug use in poor families is much worse and, hey, those people need to be policed. Besides, the children of drug users don’t really need to eat.
The Counter-Argument: Rick Scott’s attempts to implement this policy is the perfect example of why it wouldn’t work to accomplish anything and that it actually costs taxpayers of saving them anything. Only 2% of Floridians forced to submit to drug testing in order to receive benefits actually failed those drug tests, meaning that Florida had to reimburse 98% of them for the cost of the $30 test. Despite Scott’s insistence that drug use was higher among welfare recipients, no statistical data exists to prove this and, in fact, the failed policy’s results show quite the opposite.
The Most Important Thing to Add: More than 90% of all public assistance funds go to the elderly, the disabled, and the working poor. Very, very little goes to able-bodied, working age adults, and those adults all have children. Public assistance benefits never go to childless adults who are not disabled, ever, as they aren’t eligible for those benefits. Neither are undocumented immigrants, with the exception of Medicaid. *Side note, when they add “But my neighbor’s sister’s boyfriend’s cousin receives welfare and buys drugs with it,” tell them to either report that person or shut up. They probably don’t know that person or they’re simply making assumptions about them that aren’t true.
12. “Obama is the worst president ever.”
Where It Comes From: Just like #1, this is a difficult one to pin on one statement or one politician. Again, we can point to Fox News as the inspiration. The Pew Research Center notes that in “the final stretch of the campaign, nearly half (46%) of Obama’s coverage on Fox was negative, while just 6% was positive in tone.” (An argument can be made that MSNBC is more critical of Republican candidates; however, MSNBC does not claim to be “fair and balanced”). In 2012, Fox even produced its own anti-Obama video, which was “a four-plus minute campaign video that presented a variety of soundbites by President Obama accompanied by ominous graphics and eerie music that falsely implied his campaign promises were unkept.”
The Counter-Argument: To argue this statement, just point to the numerous accomplishments of our president since 2008. The number of uninsured Americans is at an historic low thanks to The Affordable Care Act. The auto industry had nearly tanked in 2009, but Obama’s stimulus act helped the big three automakers to add 100,000 jobs. Both Osama bin Laden and Moammar Gaddafi are dead, and no American lives were lost in the process of capturing and killing either one. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” has been repealed. Despite Fox News and Dick Cheney’s insistence that foreign relations are worse than ever due to a negative global worldview of Obama and his policies, the Pew Global Attitudes Project reports that “favorable opinion toward the United States rose in ten of fifteen countries surveyed…with an average increase of 26 percent.” Studies show that unemployment rates are down, the stock market is up, and job creation is at its highest since 1999. If this is the worst president ever, we need?more like him.
The Most Important Thing To Add: George W. Bush tanked the economy, sent us into a war for reasons that weren’t true (weapons of mass destruction, anyone?), and then allowed torture of war prisoners. Richard Nixon resigned from office after illegally bugging his opposing party’s campaign headquarters. Under Herbert Hoover, another Republican, our country entered its very first Great Depression. Worst president ever? What standards are you using to determine this, exactly?
13. “I’m not racist or anything, but…”
Stop. We don’t need a three-step breakdown of this one. Any statement that follows that opening will be, without a doubt, a completely racist statement. If you find yourself arguing with someone who is starting a sentence this way…yes, they are racist. Just roll your eyes and walk away.
Carissa is a proud feminist and self-described nerdy chick and pop culture junkie. She graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s in Women’s and Gender Studies from the University of Louisville and is currently completing her master’s degree. Her previous work experience is in social justice along with two full-time AmeriCorps terms as a language tutor for immigrant children. In her spare time, Carissa enjoys reading, heavy metal music, and being the Crazy Aunt to her nieces and nephews.
