By Lukas Myers
Staff Writer
SPRINGFIELD – Mudslinging is to be expected in the wake of every campaign. It is, after-all, an entirely useful mechanic for discrediting the opposition without having any basis in fact whatsoever.
Most recently in the political field, presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, a liberal senator hailing from Vermont, has been compared to none other than the man, the myth, the legend: Adolf Hitler.
This claim comes from the fact that Sanders is ideally a Socialist, the line has been drawn to the former dictator’s political alignment without much wanted favorability toward Sanders.
The logical inconsistencies here start with the fact that Bernie Sanders is not a fascist, which is part of the reason Hitler made it into power, riding the anti-Semite wave (Sanders is also Jewish).
Also the sociopolitical climate in which Hitler rose to power is not even remotely the same as modern-day United States of America. Hitler rose to power with the backing of an entire Socialist party and then created a one-party system.
Sanders is a socialist in an entire party of Democrats who do not necessarily hold the same views as him taking away any support for fascist lawmaking or invading Poland. The climate and rhetoric around Sanders is entirely different from that of 1930s Germany.
Another piece of mudslinging in the news comes from Presidential “hopeful” Donald Trump. He simultaneously holds the Constitution up to the level of a holy book while he claims that the Canadian-born Cruz is not a U.S. Citizen, which the law, protected by that very same holy book, supports that he is.
Nevertheless Americans continue to believe in this strange business man who, for lack of a better phrase, is the type of person that fact-checking analysts refer to as an “anomaly”.
The very practice of mudslinging itself is a logical fallacy known as an ad hominem that focuses on attacking the characters of these candidates rather than battle them in true debate on their policy.
One thing is clear, in an America that claims it is tired of “the same old thing,” in politics, it sure is biting the same old bait seemingly without attempt to find something more substantive.
Lukas can be reached at [email protected]