A Red Herring

Sometimes when teaching English, I taught a unit on logical thinking, reasoning and fallacies. Fallacies were always interesting; not only because they had great names; "Slippery Slope", "poisoning the well", and "begging the questions"; but students could always quickly recognize the fallacies and see real-life examples.

The recent focus on collective bargaining in many states is a nice reminder of the fallacy known as "Red Herring". Basically the fallacy of the red herring is that attention is diverted from the issue being discussed by drawing attention to another issue that is not closely connected to the original issue.

For state governments the issue of huge state deficits can be difficult to discuss if the focus is on the underfunding of programs or poor management of funds. Attacking the collective bargaining rights of public employees serves as an effective red herring.

There is little doubt that collective bargaining has led to abuses by some unions. Unions that zealously protect worker's rights often result in abuses that are difficult to justify when looked at from a distance. These abuses include a reluctance to modernize at the expense of union jobs or making dismissal of marginally effective union members very difficult.

For some governors and legislatures collective bargaining has become a boogie man that must be dealt with; but it will not seriously address the issues of state deficit budgets or faults in the education system or governments that continually rewards the top 1% of wage earners over the middle class.

The next year and half of political theater will continue to provide examples of fallacies of reasoning that people need to recognizing.