Political Spin

My Congressman is fond of sending out mass emails. Or possibly, he is fond of ordering his staff to send out mass emails in his name. In any event, he began a recent email by complaining that the healthcare law is over 2500 pages long, but the Administration’s strategy to combat ISIS is only 7 pages long. This difference in document lengths apparently implies, according to the Congressman’s view, that Obama cares about his healthcare law 357 times more than combatting ISIS. That number is arrived at by simple math: 2500 pages divided by 7 pages. Or inversely, one could say that Obama cares about defeating ISIS only 0.0028 as much as his healthcare law. That is to say: 7 pages divided by 2500 pages. And even if the math is not exactly right (because, for example, the relationship between the two variables might not be linear), the implication remains that the more you care about solving a problem, the lengthier the documented solution should be.

This is just what the Congressman is implying – that the size of a document, as measured in number of pages, is proportional to how much the writer of the document cares about the subject of the document. If that is not what the Congressman is implying, then why mention the numbers?

But this implication is absurd if we think about it. Let’s reverse the numbers. Let’s suppose the healthcare law is 7 pages long, but the plan to combat ISIS is 2500 pages long. Does this make anyone feel better about either the healthcare system or the plan to defeat ISIS?

When I was in high school, I’m sure I could’ve knocked out a 7 page national healthcare law overnight as a homework assignment, but I’m also sure I would have written an absolutely terrible law.

How about this: a 2500 page World War 2 plan to invade Europe by landing on the beaches of Normandy? I don’t know how many pages were in the actual invasion plan, but I doubt that a 5000 page plan would automatically be twice as good as a 2500 page plan. And if General Eisenhower had handed Truman and Churchill a 2500 page invasion plan, I feel certain that neither Truman nor Churchill would have told him, “Not enough pages! Take it away and bring it back when it’s at least 10,000 pages long.”

When a politician says something, especially if it’s rehearsed or stated in an email, you must assume you’re hearing, if not outright lies or distortions, facts that political spin doctors have worked on to make you believe what that politician wants you to believe. Don’t be a sucker. Listen critically and question everything.