Hold on to Your Emotions - and Your Rights (8/25/02)

Hold on to Your Emotions - and Your Rights (8/25/02)

By Dean Hartwell

Appeal to emotion is a great tool to convince people to buy something or to think a certain way. Commercials use this technique all the time. Turn on a television and look at gorgeous models selling jeans and get the feeling that, you, too, can be just as gorgeous if you buy them. Watch slick cars going full speed down the highway and imagine your life just as carefree. See advertisements for movies with quotes calling it "one of the year's best" and get the impression all of the critics felt the same way.

Advertisers know that the typical consumer will not think past emotions to understand the lack of logic presented. So, too, do politicians.

President George W. Bush has started to wear a lapel with the image of the United States flag on it. It makes for a good "sound bite" on the news, but does it make him more patriotic than if he did not wear it?

Of course not. But it does distract us from considering the Bush Administration policies that undermine what the flag stands for. Consider the concept of due process. Among other things, it involves the right of an accused person to trial. Tell that to Jose Padilla, a United States citizen accused of plotting to make a bomb. He has been detained without a trial, or even plans for a trial, for months.

Bush and other leaders proclaimed their love for the Pledge of Allegiance when a federal court in California ruled that the words "under God" must be removed from it. Or, how about those who champion the slogan "God Bless America" or who want prayer restored in public schools? Are any of these people more godly than anyone else?

That is doubtful. More importantly, their words work against a key tenet of our Constitution: freedom of religion. By requiring the words "under God" in the Pledge, for example, we require those who do not believe in God to lie about their beliefs or to risk alienation. There is no logical reason to require the words or to require prayer since believers in God can pray on their own time.

Or how about those who speak loudly for gun rights by saying "guns don't kill people - people kill people." Does this statement really make sense?

No, it does not. Guns are tools that some people use to threaten, injure or kill others. So, too, are knives, baseball bats and even fists. The difference between guns and the weapons in the second group is that people have a much easier time using a gun. It can be used at a distance to kill or injure without giving the victim much chance to flee or fight back. Have you ever heard of "drive-by knifings"?

Consumers of political speech should not abandon logic in favor of emotion. Images of the flag, uplifting words about God and rhetoric about guns may make us feel better, but they do not protect our rights.