Letters to the editor July 9

Gish gallop

We were all disappointed by the “debate,” but don’t despair. It is simply another disingenuous instance in a long line of Republican dirty tricks. 

A debate with no fact checking against an opponent with no regard for the truth is not a debate — it’s a verbal slug fest where the person who lies the loudest, the fastest and the most appears to win. Trump didn’t need to prepare for the affair because that’s his regular mode of operation; he’s been repeating those fictions for the last 10 years! Trump’s strategy, called the Gish gallop, is a rhetorical technique where a debater overwhelms the opponent with a stunning array of rapid-fire inaccurate arguments. The purpose is to daze and confuse, and that worked initially. Trump’s MAGA White House advisors used the same ploy only they had a coarser name for it: “Flood the zone with s**t.”