ARGUMENTUM AD NAUSEAM
Sometimes, it feels like there's no way out
Do you ever get the feeling you've heard the same argument a hundred times before? Does it amaze you that most politicians will make the same points again and again, even if those points have been roundly rebuked and discredited? This doesn't faze a politician or pundit, because they live by the argumentum ad nauseam, the rhetorical school of thought whereby if something is repeated often enough, people will come to believe it.
President Obama is the king of this. No matter how many nearly identical speeches he makes all over the country, he still feels like he's not getting his message across. Even after the "bipartisan" healthcare summit, he continued to misrepresent the Republican side of the argument and make points that had been fully and completely annihilated by the opposition. Of course, the Republicans were behaving in much the same way.
Make no mistakes, though, the current president is hardly the first person to do this. The very existence of talking points and campaign slogans is evidence that the argumentum ad nauseam has been with us for far longer than any of us have been alive. It is perhaps more annoying today than it has ever been, because people who follow politics now have access to the Internet, where they can find nearly every side to every political argument. When these arguments develop at a snail's pace--if at all--you get the feeling that politics never really change.
And that, unfortunately, is mostly true.From: http://open.salon.com/blog/emagill/2010/04/09/top_10_logical_fallacies_in_politics
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