Donald Trump speaks at Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition Presidential Forum
Overview:
Trump walked on stage carrying his Bible and spoke briefly on his platform. For the majority of this speech, he addressed topics of concern to this Christian group. He also answered questions.
SMELL test:
S: SOURCE
The source of the video is the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition Presidential Forum. They recorded and produced this video, then other entities uploaded the video. I accessed it from Right Side Radio's YouTube Channel.
The source of the information itself it Donald Trump. He never actually cites any other sources.
- P: PROXIMITY
- Medium. Trump walked on stage carrying his Bible, which was given to him by his mother as a young boy, but when he says, "See? I'm better than you thought, you see?" He doesn't use his Bible during his speech. It would appear he brought it as an accessory to gain the respect of his audience. Trump addresses some of his platform, but his agenda -- and the agenda of the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition Presidential Forum -- mainly consists of religious topics.
- I: INDEPENDENCE
- It's hard to determine whether Trump is independent from his sources because we aren't exactly sure what they are. He doesn't cite any.
- E: EXPERTISE
- Trump was raised religious, but received no professional religious training. It's hard to believe he has any more expertise on religious topics than anyone else in the room. As a presidential candidate, he is expected to be well-versed on issues of concern to the country. He was able to answer the questions from the moderator well, or at least eloquently.
M: MOTIVE
Donald Trump was likely motivated to make those at the forum feel cheated or as though they were in danger of losing their rights as religion-keepers. He emphasized his conviction to protect those rights — making himself the hero. His motive wasn't to persuade his audience — he only reinforced what they already thought. He barely informed them with additional information. It was more to entertain them with their own ideas.
E: EVIDENCE
Trump makes many claims, but — while some are correct — he does not present much evidence to back up those claims. He doesn't use statistics when he makes claims like "religious liberty is at stake" or "if you're a Muslim in Israel, it's easy to come to the United States." Even if his facts are quantitative, he doesn't present evidence for it.
L: LOGIC
Trump falls victim to many logical fallacies in this speech, including generalizations and slippery-slope fallacies. He presents his facts, but the opinions he attaches to them don't have sound logic. A better way he could have approached it would have been to explain his thought process of the progression of his understanding of the facts to his opinions.
L: LEFT OUT
Trump's speech was directed to a very specific group — religious Iowans — so it's hard to consider what groups or individuals were left out of that very particular group. This issues that were mentioned the most were those that were relevant to that group. However, it's important to note that the opposing views were not introduced in a fair or balanced way.
Analysis:
Statement: “Christians need support in our country and around the world. Their religious liberty is at stake… We’re not being protected."
It is true that Christianity has been declining in the U.S. and around the world. According to a study by the Pew Research Center, the percentage of Americans that identify as Christians has dropped from 78.4% in 2007 to 70.6% in 2014 ("America's Changing Religious Landscape," 2014).
 |
| Credit: Pew Research Center. |
In addition to the U.S. decline, Iraq has lost the majority of its Christian population over the years. According to the Huffington Post, an estimated 1,000,000 Iraqi Christians migrated from the region or were killed between 1990 and 2013 — a difference of 83.4% (Clark, 2013).
Journalist and religious author Rupert Shortt claims in his book Christianophobia: A Faith under Attack that "Christians are targeted more than any other body of believers." He cites the Pew Forum's and the World Evangelical Alliance's estimates "that 200 million Christians (10 per cent of the global total) are socially disadvantaged, harassed or actively oppressed for their beliefs" (Shortt, 2012, p. viii). Shortt does not break down that number according to country.
Trump claims that Christians' religious liberty is at stake and that religious rights are not being protected. Although he is referring to the religious liberty of all Christians throughout the world, he uses "we" in reference to religious rights being protected. For this analysis, we will only examine religious rights in the U.S.
The American Civil Liberties Union explains the establishment and free exercise clauses of the First Amendment: "Our country's founders... created the First Amendment to guarantee the separation of church and state. This fundamental freedom is a major reason why the U.S. has managed to avoid a lot of religious conflicts that have torn so many other nations apart" ("Your Right to Religious Freedom," 2015).
According to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, religious freedom in the U.S. comes from the First Amendment, which has not been modified or changed since in 1791 when it was ratified (Volokh, 2014). Therefore, religious liberty is being protected just as much today in the U.S. as it was in 1791.
Statement: “The first amendment guarantees our right to practice our faith as we see fit — not just during the holy days, but all the time, always, wherever.”
This is sort of a slippery-slope fallacy. The First Amendment guarantees the separation of church and state, the right to worship (or not), and the freedom from the government establishing (encouraging or promoting) religion in any way ("Your Right to Religious Freedom," 2015). However, there are rare instances where citizens cannot practice their religion "as they see fit" — for instance, when a public servant is required to issue marriage licenses and they don't due to religious scruples, they will lose their job ("Kim Davis's deputy clerks," 2015). Where citizens' religious practices infringe on someone else's rights, they cannot practice their religion, as Trump put it, "as [they] see fit."
Statement: "We're giving Iran $150 billion, and... by the time I get there, it'll all be gone. It'll all be spent. It'll all be given to a lot of people, and a lot of bad people. It is so sad, and it's going to go very quickly."
As Secretary of State John Kerry said, that money would be Iran's "own." Therefore, what they would do with it and how quickly they would spend it is unpredictable (Pollak, 2015).
Statement: "If you're in Israel and you're a Muslim, it's very easy to come into the United States."
Truthiness. This is a generalization. While the Pew Research Institute estimates that the number of Muslim immigrants in the U.S. will increase at a dramatic rate from now until 2030, that doesn't necessarily make it easy (Hahn, 2015).
Donald Trump vs. Carly Fiorina - CNN Debate Highlights
Overview: In the CNN Republican Presidential Debate, Donald Trump and Carly Fiorina were both key players. In this video, Fiorina addresses Trump.
SMELL test:
S: SOURCE
Carly Fiorina is the source of all the information presented in this video.
- P: PROXIMITY
- High. Fiorina is as close to the issues as Trump. Some of the assertions she addressed had to do with her own career.
- I: INDEPENDENCE
- Medium. Fiorina is not attached to Trump's campaign, but as his opponent, it is her job to make him look bad.
- E: EXPERTISE
- High. Fiorina, as a candidate for the presidency, is well-versed on the same issues as the other candidates.
M: MOTIVE
Fiorina was motivated to make herself look better than Trump, as she was debating him. While an ethical politician would present a fair argument, it's not uncommon for politicians to take stabs at each other. However, Fiorina instead made several valid points, the truth of which reflected poorly on Trump.
E: EVIDENCE
In her assertions, Fiorina used statistics and specific facts to support. Her claims are well-supported and - for the most part - are accurate.
L: LOGIC
Fiorina uses simple logic. The audience is able to follow her thought process fairly easily.
L: LEFT OUT
Many of the issues Fiorina would probably have preferred not play a role in the debate were brought up, but she addressed them frankly. Left out of her statements were Donald Trump's views on specific issues. Their arguments were very personal, but the audience might have preferred to hear about their views.
Statement: "You can't just wave your hands and say, 'The Fourteenth Amendment is going to go away.' It will take an extremely arduous vote in Congress, followed by two-thirds of the states, and if that doesn't work to amend the Constitution, then it is a long and arduous process in court."
This statement is true. According to Article V of the Constitution, amending the Constitution by ratification would require a 3/4 majority in the state legislatures or a 3/4 majority of ratifying conventions in the states ("The Constitution," n.d.).
Statement: "San Francisco has been a sanctuary city since 1989. There are 300 of them."
Although the term "sanctuary city" has no legal meaning, it is customarily a city in which policies dictate that unauthorized immigrants will not be prosecuted, protecting them from deportation (Fimrite, 2007). According to the SFGate, San Francisco has been a sanctuary city since 1989 (Fimrite, 2007). However, as of October 2015, the center for immigration studies determined that there were 340 sanctuary cities in the U.S., not 300 as Fiorina suggests. (Vaughan, 2015).
Statement: "I led Hewlett-Packard through a very difficult time — the worst technology recession in 25 years. The NASDAQ stock index fell 80 percent. It took 15 years for the stock index to recover."
Carly Fiorina became the CEO of Hewlett-Packard in 1999 ("Carly Fiorina Biography," 2015). Between 2000 through 2002, the NASDAQ dropped 79% — from 5046.86 to 1114.11 (Beattie, 2015). According to FedPrimeRate.com, the NASDAQ did not reach anywhere near 5000 until about fifteen years later in December of 2014 ("NASDAQ Composite History Chart," 2015).
Statement: "Politicians build mountains of debt using people's money. That is, in fact, precisely the way you (Donald Trump) run your casinos... You were forced to file for bankruptcy not once, not twice, but four times -- a record four times."
While the assertion that "politicians built mountains of debt using people's money" is a generalization, it is true that Trump filed for corporate bankruptcy four times, most recently in 2011 (Berke, 2015). This statement could almost be considered three separate facts — that politicians accumulate debt, that Donald Trump accumulates debt using other people's money in his casinos, and that Donald Trump filed for bankruptcy four times. As Trump's business is a private entity, that fact is not verifiable. Fiorina doesn't share how she knew that information, or what her source was. Therefore, that assertion is truthiness.
No comments:
Post a Comment