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		Lawrence Summers was driven from his presidency of Harvard for merely mentioning the possibility that women may not have as much aptitude for math as men		implies women are helpless unless they recieve special treatment from the government
race card	Bringing race into a debate by suggesting that criticism is racially motivated or that one's opponent is racist	Used effectively to silence criticism of Obama in 2008
hate speech card	Anything that highlights or is critical of the historical record of liberal governance.
anti-gay card	Calling opponents of the homosexual agenda intolerant instead of focusing on the immorality of homosexuality.		assumes the posture of civil rights advocacy.	African-Americans oppose the promotion of gay rights in greater numbers than the general population of the United States as a whole.
intolerant card	demonstrating inconsistencies in liberal ideology.
uneducated card		Reading from a prop, Dan Quayle once misspelled "potato", and liberals destroyed him by playing this card		Effective until a candidate liberals are sympathetic to utters a statement such as the United States is made up of 57 states.
extreme card	in typical MSM newspeak, anything right of center or not liberal.	Bill and Hillary Clinton persistently referred to the Republican Contract with America as extreme; President Clinton ultimately signed 7 of 10 Contract items in to law.	Prior to the 9/11 attacks, was used interchangeably with "terrorist" by mainstream media sources.	Polls show mainstream journalists are more liberal than the American public.
global warming denier card	opposition to using junk science to promote political activism.	Global warming activists have likened climate change to Nazi atrocities.	equates moderates with ignorant fascists.	belittles and denigrates victims of the Nazi holocaust.
anti-environment card
insensitive card
greedy card	Portraying capitalistic ideas or actions as greedy	Attacking oil companies for their profits, even though oil companies create jobs and pay into the federal Treasury, and profits make up a reasonable portion of total revenue.	Most people care about money and fairness.	Seems hypocritical if the person using the strategy is wealthy (like most liberal politicians) or benefits from capitalism (like all Americans)
fundamentalist card	seeks to link Islamic fundamentalism with Christian fundamentalism.	Richard Dawkins screed, The God Delusion.	puts Billy Graham and bin Laden in the same boat.	A majority of Americans are neither atheist nor secular humanists.
creationist card
birther card
conspiracy theory card	the one making the charge cannot explain facts.	Hillary Clinton charged that her husband's behavior was the result of a "vast right-wing conspiracy".	provides plausible reasons for the simple minded.	contradictory evidence leads to more conspiracy theories.
homophobia card	an irrational fear.	Opposition to the radical redefinition of marriage as expressed in California's Proposition 8 was deemed homophobia.	Old stand-by in the arsenal of liberal slander attacks.	Attempts to ostracize and criminalize an emotional disorder. Many if not most homophobes are gay.
Dominionist card	implies evangelical Christians want to impose an Iranian style theocracy on the United States.	Used by misogynists to attack Michelle Bachmann. [2]	appeals to the fears of atheists and religious bigots.	based on social pseudoscience, propaganda, and journalistic hacks.
"Responsible" Republicans card	Used to imply a few Republicans, mostly RINOs, are "responsible."	"During the health care battle, President Obama was unable to find a single Responsible Republican to serve as a mascot."	Who killed Responsible Republicans? Bill Kristol, of course.	In 1990 President George H.W. Bush was credited as being a Responsible Republican for violating his "read my lips" pledge.
millionaires and billionaires card	class warfare	President Obama said on June 29, 2011, "I'm proposing we get rid of tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires."	appeals to voters motivated by envy	politicians that use it are dependent on campaign contributions from millionaires and billionaires.
abortion card
gun nut card	slurs anyone who wants to take away defensive weapons			angers those with guns
working families card	class warfare	See Democratic Talking Points, 2008 Presidential Nominating Convention, from the New York Times. [3]	postures Democrats as advocates for people who hold jobs and have children.	Politicians who employ such rhetoric invariably work to pass legislation that destroys jobs and undermines families.
against teacher-led prayer in our public schools card
Godwin card	invoking the name of Hitler.	Liberal George Soros likened the Bush administration to the Nazi regime.	appeals to emotion and extremists, and less educated leftists.	typical oppressive Nazi tactic.
McCarthyism card	accuse someone of being like the (false) liberal portrayal of Joseph McCarthy
liberal mocking card	mocking a conservative opponent rather than dealing with substantive issues	The Daily Show		makes person look petty
Liberal redefinition card	changing the definition of a word to suit one's purposes
trickle down card	anti-free market agitprop			ignores the fact the Reagan reforms gave birth to the longest, most extended peacetime prosperity era in U.S. history.
misuse of statistics card
Islamophobia card
Mediscare card
Third rail card	Proposals to reform Social Security result in political suicide.	Under President Obama, Social Security for the first time in its history, has a negative cash flow and has been paying out more in benefits than the cash it demands from younger workers.	Slander your opponent for proposing solutions.	Political and economic stagnation.
Patriot card	Seeks to paint loyal Americans as racist.	"patriotism is little more than a disguised form of racism"	Some "Patriot movement" groups call for tighter immigration control.	Democrats can be sensitive to the charge of being unpatriotic.
Immigration card	implies Democrats are sympathetic to a person's immigration status, despite the fact there is no historical record of legislative achievements in this area.	The promised Obama Dream Act, a "cynical exercise in political charades", failed to pass the Democratic controlled Senate, 55-41.	Seeks to pit voters against each other along racial and ethnic lines, which Democrats view as a win.	Most immigrants come to America seeking conservative values, such as a right to work, lower taxes, being free of big government oppression, etc.
free speech card	cry "free speech," "free speech" for everything offensive to Christianity, while censoring the truth and limiting political speech
cherry picking data card	selectively picking out cases that support one's arguments from a wide variety of material and ignoring all the cases that don't			dishonest and easy to point out counterexamples
never-admitting-a-mistake card	inability to admit a mistake; lack of openmindness
nativist card
Nixon's Southern Strategy card	implies Richard Nixon appealed to Southern Democrats and racists after Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.	"probably the biggest lie that's been told to the blacks since Woodrow Wilson segregated the federal government"	labels Southerners as racist.	ignores the fact that (1) Richard Nixon did not carry the South; a Democrat, George Wallace recieved 49 electoral votes exclusively from the South; and (2) passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act was entirely dependent on Republican votes with Democrats in both houses voting against passage.
neo-confederate card	implies Civil War buffs want to bring back segregation and slavery.	On the 150th anniversary of start of Civil War, MSNBC's liberal hosts and guests never miss an opportunity to associate today's conservative movement with the Confederacy, secession, slavery and racism.	intimidating to Bluedog Democrats.	may backfire and evoke bipartisanship.
redneck card	implication rural inhabitants are uneducated and possibly racist	most often applied to Ron Paul supporters	pejoritive aimed at Bluedog Democrats, Red State dwellers, and others in flyover country.	When motivated, this group forms and important part of a center-right majority.
NASCAR card	insinuates NASCAR fans are uneducated and racist	NASCAR fans tend to vote Republican.	Republicans failed to balance the budget by cutting $7.4 million of the Pentagon's sponsorship of NASCAR for Army recruiting.	NASCAR has an estimated 75 million fans.
bitter and cling to guns or religion card	Used by Obama.
Denying Biblical scientific foreknowledge card
Anti-American card.	Denying American exceptionalism. Trouts out false examples of how European countries have better standard of living.

Total number of cards: 44, out of a goal of 52.