Logical Fallacies in Politics: Appeal to Force

The job of a politician is persuasion. By force of argument or force of personality, the politician must persuade people that something needs to be done, and that s/he is the best person to ensure that it is done. While most politicians sincerely believe they are acting for the greater good, their arguments tend to take shortcuts. This is not malicious, in most cases; people do not generally have the time or inclination to digest full discussions of the issues, so points come through more easily in sound byte form. Even so, it is useful to examine the way politicians argue, if only to challenge simple answers and work toward what really matters with regard to an issue.

Appeal to Force Explained

An appeal to force comes when an argument either implies or states that harm will come to the listener or reader if s/he does not accept the conclusion. The simplest example would be that of a schoolyard bully arguing that a smaller child wants to hand over his/her lunch money, because if s/he doesn't, the bully will hit him/her. It can be a very powerful argument, to be sure, but it is not logically sound because the conclusion does not follow from the premise; the logical conclusion would be that the child does not want to hand over the money, but prefers it to being hit.

Appeal to Force in Politics