Trumpian Logical Fallacies: The Strawman

A few years ago, while in the midst of an argument on a message board, I accused my "debate opponent" of engaging in a strawman argument. Not understanding what that was, he attempted to rebut my position by claiming that it was my argument that was composed of metaphorical straw. He didn't understand. A strawman does not equate a position with straw, i.e. flimsy and unsubstantial. What someone who is using the strawman argument does, is present his opponent's position as related to, but weaker than or distorted from the actual position. He then attacks that "straw man" version of his opponent's argument rather than the actual argument.

President Trump regularly attacks straw versions of his political opponents, rather than those opponents themselves. Trump's campaign rallies last year and his Twitter feed this year are full of misrepresentations of what other people actually stand for. One example from the campaign was Trump's assertion that Clinton was going to eliminate the Second Amendment. Of course it's a no-brainer for Trump's base to be against someone who wants to actually take away a part of the Bill of Rights. Except that wasn't Clinton's position at all.

A couple of days following Trump on Twitter will provide numerous examples of the strawman fallacy. Trump, in this series of tweets has suggested that the Democrats are the reason that we are staring a government shutdown in the face. He is ascribing motives and actions to them that don't exist in order to attack them. I will concede that Trump's ramblings are so full of logical fallacies, that it may be difficult to isolate a statement and link it clearly to one fallacy. Ad hominem attacks play a big role in his public statements, as does appeal to fear and bandwagon fallacies. What they all have in common is that his arguments are all talk and no substance. So, the question that you want to ask while cheering Mr. Trump's attacks on the Democrats, on immigrants, on the news media, for their sins, is: is what he's saying that they're doing actually what they're doing?