Northam’s Four Dog Defense: Since When is Unifying the Party a Sign of Weakness?
Ralph Northam’s campaign sent out an email today with a narrative that proves to be inherently contradictory.
In the email, Northam attacks Ed Gillespie for inviting the President and Vice President to join him on the campaign trail, and provides this quote from Gillespie: “… the President, the Vice President … governors, cabinet members, you know I’ll take all the help I can get.”
The email then argues that Gillespie is both “increasingly right-wing” and “establishment GOP.” Which is it, Northam? This feels like the classic Four Dog Defense:
- First of all, I don’t have a dog.
- And if I had a dog, it doesn’t bite.
- And if I had a dog and it did bite, then it didn’t bite you.
- And if I had a dog and it did bite, and it bit you, then you provoked the dog.
Northam wants so badly to attack Gillespie on every front that his campaign ends up making incoherent arguments that don’t make logical sense. Either Gillespie is “too right wing” or he is “too establishment.” If he is both, he must be neither.
And the more interesting point of the email seems to insinuate that seeking to unify the GOP and bring the party’s leaders together to elect Gillespie is somehow a bad idea?
Gillespie’s appeal is that his reach is broad, and his campaign is not based on isolating any one fringe of the party. Instead, Gillespie seeks to be a Big Tent Republican, to bring all members of the Republican Party together in supporting him. Somehow Northam seems to believe that this unification of the party is an attackable idea. Perhaps its because a unified GOP would be a very dangerous thing to Northam and to the Virginia Democratic Party generally.
The Democrats are banking on the hopes that the GOP continues to tear itself apart from the inside with arguments about flags and statues, instead of coalescing under the ideals of the party: limited government and personal responsibility. Gillespie shines under these ideals, and Northam can’t figure out what to do about it.
