Friday, January 20, 2006
Gore's speech
This is the text of Gore's speech. If you disagree with it, please don't use Alberto Gonzales' tu quoque argument that the Clinton administration did something just wrong as well. That's a logical fallacy we teach freshman students to avoid.
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The fallacy applies when one tries to show that Gore's basic points about Bush, spying, etc. are wrong; that is, if one were to use it to show that domestic spying is okay after all because the administration of which Gore was a member did it also.
It is not fallacious, though, to bring in history to counter claims that Bush has been more mendacious, more sneaky, more dangerous than Clinton's administration was. It is also relevant to ask, "Why is this now wrong? Was it wrong before as well, or has something substantive changed in the situation that alters the application of ethical principles?"
There is room for suspicion that what has changed is nothing but who is now in charge, and matters of political expediency. There's nothing fallacious about calling on Gore to answer that.
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