Chris Christie Fallacy Blog Post by Andrea Rogan

Fallacies – Candidate Chris Christie

Fallacy	Quote/Paraphrase	Analysis
Black/white	“Christie is also calling for ending the current dysfunctional, ad-hoc approach for implementing drug courts being used on the federal level and as President, would make drug court mandatory in all 94 federal districts.”	This seems to imply that there are only two solutions – what is going on today and Christie’s alternative of drug court. By requiring the use of drug courts across the US, he seems to be saying that this is the “right” way.
Guilt by Association	“The era in which the Obama administration tries to accomplish its ideological goals through the regulatory state must end.”	Christie goes on to talk about revoking all of Obama’s executive orders. He seems to be saying that if it was done under Obama, it must be bad.  Anything he or his staff did should be eliminated.
Ad Hominem (an irrelevant attack on a person makes one of their arguments false) Or Guilt by Association	“It is disgraceful the way there are folks in Washington who want American intelligence weaker and less informed just to drive their own personal political agendas. Protecting our homeland must be an uncompromising priority.”	Christie seems to be saying that recent budget cuts in the Intelligence area are a result of normal Washington politics.  His attack on the people who have political agendas implies that any of their actions are bad just because they are part of an agenda.
Poisoning the well (?)	A Newark contract for teachers provides raises and bonuses based in part on student performance.	Christie seems to be saying this is a great thing.  In some places, this has led to cheating and other dishonest practices.
Appeal to Consequences	“Governor Christie laid out a plan focused on keeping communities safe while helping non-violent offenders reclaim their lives.”	Christie is painting a positive picture.  Everyone wants a safe community, so he is painting a positive picture of results.  For those who believe that the punishments for certain crimes are too harsh, he is offering a way to help people become self sufficient again.
Appeal to Consequences	Prisoners need access to educational and training opportunities so they can get skills to get jobs. “Re-entering the workforce is a critical step for ex-offenders to reintegrate into their communities and lead productive lives.”	Many people believe that there are too many people in prisons.  By giving them skills and a chance for jobs, Christie is painting a very nice picture of a better future.  (There could also be a false cause and/or bandwagon argument here – it is hard to know because there are no specifics or examples given as to why Christie believes this.
Appeal to Fear	A strong military will help us “deal with the threats we face.” It will also help “eliminate them before we even see them.”	Given what is going on with ISIS, terrorists and the war, there is a lot of fear among many people.  He is using that fear to say that we need to give the military more money.  If we do not, he implies that we could lose.
Bandwagon	For Social Security, Christie says that if Americans “are fortunate enough not to need it, they will have paid into a system that will continue to help Americans who need it most.” For medicare, Christie wants to “(expand) the existing sliding scale for …premiums.”	Both of these ideas seem to be saying that Christie will take benefits away from the rich.  This seems to be a popular Robinhood idea – take from the rich to help the poor.
Emotional Appeal and Bandwagon	“Tenure for teachers should be awarded and retained based on performance.”	This is a very popular idea that only the best teachers who keep up with the latest techniques and who bring energy to their classes should be kept.  You cannot stay on just because you have experience.  It is an emotional appeal because it sounds fair to all teachers – if you work hard and do a good job, then you will be rewarded.
Emotional appeal	Christie wants to give more money to the military so the “men and women in uniform (have) the resources they need to get the job done.”	Christie seems to be saying that we are making individuals serving in the military have a hard time doing their job because we are not giving them all the tools or training they need to be successful. He is trying to get us to see that they are acting on our behalf and they need our support in order to be successful. Since they are working for us, how can we deny them stuff?
Appeal to Consequences and Emotional appeal	In talking about taxes, Christie wants to “lower individual tax rates for every American while unleashing the nation’s growth potential.” He wants a “flatter, fairer and simpler ..tax system.”	“Unleashing growth potential” sounds like a great result.  With all the hard economic times, this sounds like a positive move. Anything that is fair is always appealing to people. I have never had to do taxes, but simplifying them also sounds like it would appeal to people.
Unrepresentative sample.	“Enrollment in New Jersey’s Inter-District School Choice Program increased more than 5-fold” and “The Christie administration has increased the overall number of charter schools in New Jersey to 87, serving 37,500 students.”	The number of charter schools seems very small for a state with as many students as New Jersey has.  The information on the school choice program does not give a starting point, so it is unclear if it is very big or not.  They both seem to be very small examples.
Cum Hoc (2 things that happened together must have a causal relationship).	Christie helped the Camden NJ community revamp the way police interact in the community.  Violent crime has gone down by 22%, and homicides have gone down by 51%.	Christie is claiming that the crime rate has gone down because of the way that the Camden police department was changed.
Post Hoc (a thing that happens before another thing caused that).	“Ban the Box” – Christie wants to make employers stop asking if someone has been convicted of a crime before they have been interviewed.	Christie seems to be assuming that many ex-criminals would get more jobs if they did not have to tell their potential employer of their past offenses.
Redefinition	Christie refers to the US in the past as the “arsenal of democracy”.	He is expressing his opinion that we are the keeper of democracy around the world.  The word arsenal usually refers to a group of weapons or an array of resources. This term as used here means that we have the most weapons and have been willing to use them to give other countries a chance to have a democracy – so we will use our weapons for others who are fighting for freedom.