Editing Straw man (section)

== Examples ==
In a 1977 appeal of a U.S. bank robbery conviction, a prosecuting attorney said in his oral argument:<ref name="Bosanac">{{cite book
| last=Bosanac
| first=Paul
| title=Litigation Logic: A Practical Guide to Effective Argument
| publisher=American Bar Association
| date=2009
| page=393
| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OtH9LNfDIH4C&pg=PA393
| isbn=978-1616327101}}</ref> "I submit to you that if you can't take this evidence and find these defendants guilty on this evidence then we might as well open all the banks and say, 'Come on and get the money, boys,' because we'll never be able to convict them." This was a straw man designed to alarm the appellate judges; the chance that the precedent set by one case would literally make it impossible to convict {{em|any}} bank robbers is remote.

Another example of a strawman argument is U.S. president [[Richard Nixon]]'s 1952 "[[Checkers speech]]".<ref name="Waicukauski">{{cite book |last=Waicukauski |first=Ronald J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JyjMncdipPIC&pg=PA61 |title=The Winning Argument |author2=Paul Mark Sandler |author3=JoAnne A. Epps |publisher=American Bar Association |year=2001 |isbn=1570739382 |pages=60–61 |author-link2=Paul Mark Sandler |access-date=25 February 2016}}</ref><ref name="Rottenberg">{{cite book
| last=Rottenberg
| first=Annette T.
|author2=Donna Haisty Winchell
| title=The Structure of Argument
| publisher=MacMillan
| year=2011
| pages=315–316
| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gO-OchRgkIYC&pg=PA315
| isbn=978-0312650698
| access-date=25 February 2016}}</ref> When campaigning for vice president in 1952, Nixon was accused of having illegally appropriated $18,000 in campaign funds for his personal use. In a televised response, based on Franklin D. Roosevelt's [[Fala speech]], he spoke about another gift, a dog he had been given by a supporter:<ref name="Waicukauski" /><ref name="Rottenberg" />

{{quote|It was a little cocker spaniel dog, in a crate he had sent all the way from Texas, black and white, spotted, and our little girl [[Tricia Nixon|Tricia]], six years old, named it Checkers.  And, you know, the kids, like all kids, loved the dog, and I just want to say this right now, that, regardless of what they say about it, we are going to keep it.}}

This was a straw man response; his critics had never criticized the dog as a gift or suggested he return it. This argument was successful at distracting many people from the funds and portraying his critics as nitpicking and heartless.  Nixon received an outpouring of public support and remained on the ticket. He and Eisenhower were later elected.

[[Christopher Tindale]] presents, as an example, the following passage from a draft of a bill (HCR 74) considered by the [[Louisiana State Legislature]] in 2001:<ref name="Tindale2007"/>

{{quote|Whereas, the writings of [[Charles Darwin]], the father of evolution, promoted the justification of racism, and his books ''[[On the Origin of Species]]'' and ''[[The Descent of Man]]'' postulate a hierarchy of superior and inferior races. ... Therefore, be it resolved that the legislature of Louisiana does hereby deplore all instances and all ideologies of [[racism]], does hereby reject the core concepts of Darwinist ideology that certain races and classes of humans are inherently superior to others, and does hereby condemn the extent to which these philosophies have been used to justify and approve racist practices.}}

Tindale comments that "the portrait painted of Darwinian ideology is a caricature, one not borne out by any objective survey of the works cited." The fact that similar misrepresentations of Darwinian thinking have been used to justify and approve racist practices is beside the point: the position that the legislation is attacking and dismissing is a straw man. In subsequent debate, this error was recognized, and the eventual bill omitted all mention of Darwin and Darwinist ideology.<ref name="Tindale2007"/> Darwin passionately opposed slavery and worked to intellectually confront the notions of "[[scientific racism]]" that were used to justify it.<ref>{{cite book|author=Adrian Desmond and James Moore|year=2009|title=Darwin's Sacred Cause: How a Hatred of Slavery Shaped Darwin's Views on Human Evolution|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt}}</ref>

Throughout the 20th century, and also in the 21st century thus far,<ref>[[Austin Sarat|Sarat, Austin]]. [https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/06/22/donald-trump-red-scare-communism-00102990 "Why Donald Trump Says his Enemies are 'Communists{{'"}}]. ''[[Politico]]'', 22 June 2023. {{retrieved|access-date=7 March 2025}}.</ref> there have been innumerable instances when right-wing political leaders and commentators used [[communism]] as a straw man while denouncing the proposals of centrists, moderate liberals, or even moderate conservatives. They sought to portray valid criticism of their own right-wing policies as expressions of communist ideology when in reality, most of the critics in question were not even [[Socialism|socialists]], much less communists. The use of communism as a straw man was a common and effective (though fallacious) talking point by conservative leaders in many western countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and most especially the United States.<ref>[https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/educational-resources/age-of-eisenhower/mcarthyism-red-scare "McCarthyism and the Red Scare"]. [[Miller Center of Public Affairs]], University of Virginia. {{retrieved|access-date=7 March 2025}}.</ref><ref>Mukhergee, Rudrangshu. [https://m.thewire.in/article/books/how-fear-of-communism-led-to-the-rise-of-hitler-and-nazism "How Fear of Communism Led to the Rise of Hitler, Nazism, and World War Two"]. ''[[The Wire (India)|The Wire]]'', India, 5 November 2021. {{retrieved|access-date=7 March 2025}}</ref><ref>[[Max Boot|Boot, Max]]. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/08/27/reagan-ideologue-pragmatist-boot/ "Ronald Reagan Was More Ideological – and More Pragmatic – Than You Think"]. ''[[The Washington Post]]'', 27 August 2024. {{retrieved|access-date=7 March 2025}}</ref>