Romesburg, Kaur 1

Olivia Romesburg
Amandeep Kaur
Dr. Blair
URWT 1102-051
26 February 2015
Jeb Bush, Liberal or Conservative?
50% of Republicans say they see a need for immigration reform this year, with 53% of
Democrats saying the same(). In the article Three Generations of Imbeciles are enough Ann
Coulter uses the issues of immigration to say that Jeb Bush is too liberal to be the GOP candidate
for the upcoming presidential election. She also uses this issue to show that Jeb is way further
left than his opponent, Mitt Romney, in the presidential race. Through the use of multiple types
of fallacies she tries to prove her point throughout the article. The most effective fallacies that
she uses include name calling, jargon, hasty generalization and stacked evidence.
Politicians, to help sway their audience, use Name Calling widely throughout politics.
Why not use it to make Jeb Bush sounds more liberal? Name Calling is exactly what it sounds
like. Proper definition according to Ann McClintok for Name Calling is, a tactic in which
negatively charged names are hurled against the opposing side or competitor. McClintok uses
name calling in the title when she calls people imbeciles. She uses this word to make her point
come across stronger than just saying dumb or stupid. Examples of name calling in the article
that Coulter uses are catnip, lickspittles, and half-wits. Lickspittles are those that are
behave obsequiously to the one in power and half-wits is another way to say stupid or foolish
person. She uses these negatively charged words to further describe republicans that pretend to
be conservative and how their views align more with democrats. She does this to give a bad

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connotation to the readers about these republicans masquerading as conservatives, so that the
same idea would be associated with Jeb Bush.
Jargon is a propaganda technique Ann Coulter uses throughout her article. Jargon is a
type of doublespeak that is specialized in language that allows members to speak easily and
clearly (Lutz). This is due to the fact that her entire audience is not in the political field and using
words like illegal aliens, cheap-labor plutocrats, untoward remark, and amnesty can be
confusing to an everyday citizen. She does this to confuse the readers and to hide the meaning of
what she is saying. In the sentence But with the cheap-labor plutocrats up in arms during the
2012 presidential campaign over Romney's suggestion that their serfs "self-deport," all the
Republican lickspittles rushed to denounce his untoward remark she uses three different
examples of jargon to make the clear meaning of the sentence unclear.
Have you ever jumped to a conclusion about someone or something without knowing all
facts? This is an example of the fallacy hasty generalization. By definition hasty generalization is
when arguers jump to conclusions by basing a conclusion on too few examples (Wood). Ann
Coulter uses hasty generalization in Three Generations of Imbeciles are enough to make Jeb
Bush look more liberal. She shows this is in the beginning of the article where she says Wall
Street will be wasting all kinds of money over the next few months(). In this section she is
saying that with Jeb Bush being the GOPs Preferred candidate, that Wall Street will be wasting a
lot of money supporting him. Most candidates for office at least wait to get elected before
betraying voters on immigration, because who doesnt like surprises? is another place she uses
hasty generalization by saying that Jeb Bush rushed faster than anyone else betray the ideas of
immigration which is proving her point further.

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To show that Jeb Bush is liberal she uses hasty generalization to prove that his is views
are even more liberal than other known democrats. She says, You know whats an even bigger
magnet for illegals than a politicians promise to pass amnesty in the future? Governors offering
them drivers licenses and in-state tuition right now(). She goes on to say that Jeb Bush was one
of the first Governors in the United States to propose license for illegal aliens, but even Hilary
Clinton, a predominate democrat, did not support the idea. In an article on Republicans views on
immigration it says, 70% of Republicans actually believe that the country could benefit from
having illegal immigrants join the workforce as legal workers. The difference is in whether or
not they should be given an opportunity to become full citizens, with Democrats saying yes and
Republicans saying no (). From this quote you can see that republicans do not necessarily
disagree with the idea of illegal immigrants just the idea of them gaining the same rights.
Last but not the least type of fallacy that Coulter uses is Stacked Evidence. When one
hears stacked evidence they might think of lots of evidence on top of one another trying to
prove a point. Well, thats pretty close. Stacked Evidence is like stacking evidence to represent
only one side of an issue that clearly has two sides and gives a distorted impression of the issue
(Wood). Coulter uses this fallacy for the entire article because she only shows the things that
makes Jeb Bush more liberal and further left than is competitor in the GOP race for candidacy,
Mitt Romney, rather than showing how Jeb and Mitt can both be conservative and liberal. There
are multiple examples where she does this that include how she talks about Bushs views on
immigration being to pass amnesty and give illegal aliens the same rights that citizens have, but
this is the only example of him being liberal that she talks about and she restates it in different
ways. She quotes Jeb saying that passing amnesty would be an act of love and she talks about
how he wants to give illegal aliens licenses.

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She also rebuts everything that Jeb does by showing that Romney does the exact
opposite, which would be the more conservative thing to do. Coulter talks about Jeb being one
of the first governors to demand drivers licenses for illegals and immediately comes back to say
Romney was one of the first governors to strike the idea. Through this process she stacks the
evidence against Bush and for Romney. But, when you actually take a look at Jeb Bushs views
and how they align with other conservatives you see that he is actually not that liberal. In the
article Is Jeb Bush Too Liberal to Win the Republican Nomination in 2016 there is a graph that
shows the views of all the republican candidates and it gives Jeb Bush of score of 37, which is
very similar to Romney and McCain, who both scored a 39.
Coulter in Three Generations of Imbeciles are enough does not agree with the views of
Jeb Bush and uses fallacies like Hasty Generalization, Name Calling/Jargon, and Stacked
Evidence to show that he is Liberal. She uses these fallacies to try and persuade her audience into
believing that Bush is a liberal, without giving all the facts and information. In the article Coulter
argues that many of the potential GOP candidates, like Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, and Rick Perry
are supporters of amnesty for illegal immigrants and goes on to say that Romney is the only one
of the candidates that opposes amnesty(). The use of fallacies in this article and in politics
throughout the nation are a tricky way of making the audience believe one way about the
candidates when in all actuality these ideas are twisted versions of the truth. If you look at
immigration issue as a whole, politicians have made this a big deal when it really shouldnt be
because we are all immigrants that have migrated to United States and essentially come from
different countries.

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Works Cited
Scarry, Eddie. "Ann Coulter Holds out Hope for Romney 2016: GOP Letting N.Y. Times Pick
Our Nominee | WashingtonExaminer.com." Washington Examiner. Washington Examiner, 4 Feb.
2015. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.