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Plain – folks appeal

“Plain-folks appeal” is the device by which a speaker tries to win our confidence and support by appearing to be a person like ourselves – “just one of the plain folks.” The plain-folks appeal is at work when candidates go around shaking hands with factory workers, kissing babies in supermarkets, sampling pasta with Italians, and fried chicken with Southerners. “Now I’m a businessman like you” is a plain-folks appeal, as is “I’ve been a farm boy all my life.” Senator Yakalot tries the plain-folks appeal when he says, “I’m just a small-town boy like you fine people.” The use of such expressions once prompted Lyndon Johnson to quip, “whenever I hear someone say, “I’m just an old country lawyer,” the first thing I reach for is my wallet to make sure it is still there.”

The irrelevancy of the plain-folks appeal is obvious: even if the man is “one of us”(which may not be true at all),that does not mean that his ideas and programs are sound – or even that he honestly has our best interests at heart. As with glittering generalities, the danger here is that we may mistakenly assume we are immune to this appeal. But propagandists wouldn’t use it unless it had been proved to work. You can protect yourself by saying, “Aside from his “nice guy next door” image, what this man stands for? Are his ideas and his past record really supportive of my best interest?”

Argumentum ad populum (stroking)

Argumentum ad populum means “argument to the people” or “telling the people what they want to hear.” The colloquial term from the Watergate ear is “stroking”, which conjures up pictures of small animals or children being stroked or soothed with compliments until they come to like the person doing the complimenting – and, by extension, his or her ideas.

We all like to hear nice things about ourselves and the group we belong to – we like to be liked- so it stands to reason that we will respond warmly to a person who tells us we are “hard –working taxpayers” or “the most generous, free spirited nation in the world.” Politicians tell farmers they are “the backbone of the American economy” and college students that they are the “leaders and policy makers of tomorrow.”

Obviously, the intent here is to sidetrack us from thinking critically about the man and his ideas. Our own good qualities have nothing to do with the issue at hand. Ask yourself, “Apart from the nice things he has to say about me (and my church, my nation, my ethnic group, my neighbors), what does the candidate stand for? Are his or her ideas in my best interests?”

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