Republicans And Analogies

by Stuart Shapiro

I used to enjoy the analogy section of the SATs (go ahead and say it, I’m a nerd).  In recent days, however, it has become apparent that Republican politicians probably did not do well on this portion of the test.  Alan has documented Senator Santorum’s repeated attempts to compare Democrats to Hitler.  And Steve Benen lists the repeated attempts to compare minor scandals to Watergate.

So far, none of these assorted controversies have amounted to much. In fact, some aren’t even coherent controversies at all.

Obviously these analogies trivialize the worst dictator in history and the worst presidential scandal in American history.  Hopefully it also leads to people not taking the Republicans seriously.  A ridiculous analogy is what you use when you don’t have a real argument.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.