In my exploration into Argument as Issue Campaigns I am particularly interested in exploring this metaphor through the case study of the Wisconsin Union's Collective Bargaining Campaign(s). As has been discussed prior on this blog and in the media, Wisconsin's Governor Walker proposed a budget bill earlier in the year that created tensions with many unions and liberals because of a component of the bill that aimed to end union collective bargaining rights. This bill sparked controversy and campaigns on all sides entered into the policy debate. In general terms the campaigns came together to create collective voices both in favor of Walker's policy proposal and against Walker's policy proposal.
It turned out that WI passed a modified version of the bill (now focusing almost solely on the removal of union collective bargaining rights) without the Democrats. In the video clip below we can see how, even absent the Democratic senators who protested the policy by fleeing the state, the majority of the Republican senators present voted on the policy and passed it without them.
In argumentation typically we see, even its most barest yet traditional practices, a willingness to engage the opposition.
Somethings are very noticeable in this scene above and when thinking about the metaphor Argument as Issue Campaigns the scene above really highlights how this metaphor problematizes both argument and issue campaigns. First, we have the absence of those who disagree with the policy and we have the presence of those for the policy. Also, we see that these are public officials who according to, again even in its most barest yet traditional practices, recent memory were public officials of a democracy (or republic depending on how you interpret our political system). Democracy is practiced at times through the competition of voices through debate and deliberation and this scene above is notable for its new interpretation of democracy, which could easily be understood as a lack of debate and deliberation, and, therefore, not democratic.
But with the metaphor guiding the view of this video, it seems as though Argument as Issue Campaigns shows us that argumentative interpretation and issue campaign practices as democratic practiced aren't fixed notions or concepts. Argument as Issue Campaigns paints a picture of one side being able to push a policy issue to its passage without the presence of the opposition. Power is highly visible here as a majority. And, the power of this majority, with the absence of the opposition, paints a picture (or video) of a unitary voice.
As a general concluding remark for now, I suggest that Argument as Issue Campaigns reframes and stretches the original tenor (argument) and the vehicle (issue campaign), and in the form above functions as a tyranny, and effectively silences the absent bodies and voices.
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