Political cards
Political cards are tactics used by liberals in politics, the media, and other adversarial settings in order to appeal to emotion or even prejudice rather than reason. The term is a metaphor for what happens in the card game of bridge, where one card can be played to "trump" (defeat) all other cards. Indeed, there may be about 52 political cards, just as in a deck of cards for bridge.
In contrast with most card games, however, a political card can be played at any time, no matter how irrational or irrelevant to the topic. Many liberal articles and commentaries consist of little more playing one or more political cards.
A card is "played" when one side relies on a particular issue in order to gain an often-unjustified upper hand in the debate or controversy.
Liberals have had a difficult time playing a political card against the Tea Party Movement, due to its amorphous nature.
| Political card | Meaning | Example | Advantage | Disadvantage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| sexist card | ||||
| race card | Used effectively to silence criticism of Obama in 2008 | |||
| hate speech card | ||||
| anti-gay card | ||||
| intolerant card | ||||
| uneducated card | Reading from a prop, Dan Quayle once misspelled "potato", and liberals destroyed him by playing this card | |||
| extreme card | ||||
| global warming denier card | ||||
| anti-environment card | ||||
| insensitive card | ||||
| greedy card | ||||
| fundamentalist card | ||||
| creationist card | ||||
| birther card | ||||
| conspiracy theory card |
Total number of cards: 14, out of a goal of 52.
