Op-Ed Analysis

This week our blogging assignment was to chose an op-ed piece from the newspaper and discuss it based on chapter 3 of our textbook. I chose Hold Your Heads Up by New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, a piece telling liberals to be proud of their accomplishments and not let conservatives beat them down.

As I've mentioned before in this blog, I am a devoted Democrat and Liberal. I am not ashamed of being so; in fact I am quite proud of my political convinctions. I freely identify myself this way. But we liberals have been told we are clueless, wrong, bad for America, and a million other ugly things by conservative politicians and the conservative media machine for so long, a lot of us believe it. The author touches on this point by saying,

Liberals have been so cowed by the pummeling they’ve taken from the right that they’ve tried to shed their own identity, calling themselves everything but liberal and hoping to pass conservative muster by presenting themselves as hyper-religious and lifelong lovers of rifles, handguns, whatever.

This is an instance of arguing by defining by example, demonstrating how liberals have been trying to adopt more of the conservative platform in an attempt to appear less liberal. Obviously, that never works. The liberal just appears to be a sell-out or compromising their beliefs.

The author further defines by example throughout the rest of his piece, showing ways in which liberals have benefitted America over the past century. He gives examples such as Social Security, Medicare, and advancement of civil rights causes. This can also be called arguing by example by citing real events.

The author uses emotional appeals with this sentence:

Liberals who didn’t have a clue gave us Medicare and Medicaid. Quick, how many of you (or your loved ones) are benefiting mightily from these programs, even as we speak.

By reminding us of loved ones who benefit from Medicare and Medicaid, he is appealing to our emotions.

Finally, the author utilizes verbal irony by stating:

Self-hatred is a terrible thing. Just ask that arch-conservative Clarence Thomas.

With this passage the author is implying that the conservative, African-American Supreme Court Justice is self-hating. (The author of this op-ed is black himself.) Whether that's true or not isn't something I would know, but it's amusing nonetheless.

I greatly enjoyed this op-ed piece, as I generally enjoy everything written by this author. It reminded me of why I am proud to be a liberal.