Imagine a race for a senate seat. It’s a race between two members of your party. One is the incumbent who has been in for 24 years and is now 62. The other candidate is closer to your age, 40. The challenger has been a state senator and lieutenant governor. As far as the issues, they both have pluses and minuses that cancel each other out. The TV ads of the challenger talk about some bad legislation that the incumbent had supported. When you watch video of them on the Senate floor (national in one case, and state senate in the other) they seem equally intelligent and equally persuasive. The younger candidate does seem to have more energy and enthusiasm.

 Which do you choose?

The race is for a city council seat in your district. One candidate is a self-made millionaire who started a company that sells clothing online. Her company employs 2,000 people in the city. She is proud that the clothing is fair-trade and does not involve sweatshops. The main city newspaper endorses her over the other candidate, touting her business success and her generous funding of many community projects over the years. The other candidate is a lawyer who does family and divorce law, and also volunteers as a mediator. He is endorsed by three members of city council.  

Who do you choose?

Two candidates for Mayor.  One has been on city council for eight years, has a good reputation and is responsible for many sensible and original solutions to the city’s problems. However he and his wife divorced a year ago. At that time, they both said they just grew apart after the children were raised. Since then the gossip columns have often been filled with pictures of him and various women he’s dating.  One woman he was dating was arrested for drug possession.

The only other candidate who has a chance is a man who’s as solid as the come, a family man with three college-age children, a church-goer, and someone whose older, was a city judge but then got an MBA on top of his law degree, and was city controller four years, managing the finances of the city.

Two candidates for President. One was born into a super-wealthy family.  She has had experience as a state senator, a member of the House, a term as governor, and two terms as a senator in Washington DC. She always claimed that because of her wealth, she didn’t have to do favors for corporations, because her own wealth paid for her campaigns. When you look at her voting record, you do get sense that she is consistently voting for what she thinks is right. Most of it you like. What you don’t like is her personality, bossy and aggressive. 

The other candidate has middle-class roots. He’s had roughly the came career path in politics, being of about the same age and having as many high-profile jobs. He has lots of charisma, is campaigning as “a man of the people.” He has a vision for "a greater America for the long term." He talks very intelligently about America’s long-term structural problems. He wants to transform America by leading the way on campaign finance reform, having all elections be federally or state funded, so that “big money won’t control politics.” When you check his voting record, you like it less than the woman's voting record. When you visit FollowtheMoney.Org you see a pattern of doing favors for various lobbies. On the other hand, you like his personality so much more than the woman’s.

Meanwhile it looks like Congress will be split. One party will definitely get the House and the other the Senate. For whom do you vote?

As a new member of PTTN, you've decided to upgrade your chosen news sources. Using ABC-QRS (meaning Accuracy-Bias-Credibility-Quality-Reasonableness-Support), which of these three (imaginary) websites would you choose based on the excerpt?

As a new member of PTTN, you've decided to upgrade your chosen news sources. Using ABC-QRS (meaning Accuracy-Bias-Credibility-Quality-Reasonableness-Support), which of these three websites would you choose based on the excerpt?

As a new member of PTTN, you've decided to upgrade your chosen news sources.  Using ABC-QRS (meaning Accuracy-Bias-Credibility-Quality-Reasonableness-Support), which of these three websites would you choose based on the excerpt?

As a new member of PTTN you've decided to upgrade your chosen news sources. Using ABC-QRS (meaning Accuracy-Bias-Credibility-Quality-Reasonableness-Support), which of these three websites would you choose based on the excerpt?

What does FITA mean?

In this example, imagine that you are very concerned about the local environment. A friend emails you and writes that there's a certain piece of legislation that will give companies the right to drill for natural gas in your community. Your friend wants you to help organize a march this weekend, in three days.You have no plans for the weekend, and the environment is a priority issue for you and your family. What do you do?

An advocacy group that is aligned with your favored political party sends you a lot of emails asking you sign petitions. This time it's a week before the mid-term elections.Their email states that the opposition party is close to winning control of the House of Representatives. The President is a member of your favored party.  The Senate will definitely be controlled by the opposition party. The advocacy group wants $25 to help with last minute ads in the five House districts races that could potentially be one.  Four races would be needed to keep control of the House. 

At a website that you find through PTTN's Political Info links page, you look up the poll numbers for the Congressional races that's known to give roughly unbiased odds. In those five races, your party is down by two percentage points in three races, and three points in two races.  What do you do?

Again you have an hour to do some advocacy.  Let's say you are very close to retirement and your opportunity to receive Social Security. For the sake of simplicity, only two issues are of interest to you and you must pick one. One would be a bill proposing an extra 1.5% increase in Social Security.  The other bill proposes undoing the three strikes and you're out law for minor offenses like marijuana possession. For the sake of this example, you agree with this legislation.  Which of the two do you pick to work on?

What are the benefits of adopting the FITA-KEY strategy?

Which of these is essential for productive thinking about politics?

What is the Halo Effect?

Which of these is not an aspect of media literacy?

Which of these is not an aspect of media literacy?

What questions should you ask yourself about any media message?

In statistics, what is the “average” of any set of numbers?

In statistics, what is a small representative group called?

Which of these is not a potential source of sampling bias?

If poverty and crime steadily go up at about the same rate in a certain community for about ten years, what does that mean?

If a correlation is deemed “statistically significant,” what does that mean?

How could the following (fake) statistic be misleading?

In an online poll of fifty thousand college students, it was discovered that, between March 2005 and January 2011, 51% of respondents were not registered to vote, meaning that the majority of college-aged individuals are disinterested in voting.

How could the following (fake) statistic be misleading?

The latest Smith-Jones poll, which utilized a randomized telephone survey of twenty-three registered voters and has a margin of error of +/- 5%, found that five out of six potential voters in the next election are likely to vote for their party’s candidate.

Which manipulative technique is being employed by Smith in the following example?

Jones: “I believe we should institute tougher Federal guidelines for education across the board.”

Smith: “It’s hardly surprising that Jones would take that position, since his father is a Communist.”

Which deceptive technique is being employed in the following example?

“It’s true that we have yet to see any returns on the foreign policy initiatives I put in place two years ago, but I think it’s important to remember that I spent over a decade working for the American embassy in Turkey, so I have plenty of experience dealing with foreign interests.”

Which deceptive technique is being employed in the following example?

“If elected, I will do more to lower our fine city’s crime rate than my opponent will.”

Which deceptive technique is being employed by in the following example?

“My Democratic colleague insists on voting down tax cuts, but even the great Democratic president John F. Kennedy knew that cutting taxes is the best way to grow the economy.”

Which influential technique is being used in the following example?

“My opponent has talked at length about how his new abortion laws would affect women, but what I don’t hear is him spending the same amount of energy talking about how it would affect men.”

Which influential technique is being employed by in the following example?

“This plan is an egregious and downright lavish escalation of the War on Drugs.”

Which influential technique is being employed by Jones in the following example?

Smith: “I propose we put together a Congressional panel to investigate the matter.”

Jones: “Right, because we all know how effective Congressional panels are at getting the truth.”

Which fallacy best describes Smith’s logical mistake in the following example?

Jones: “I believe there is a crisis in this country when sixty percent of the population believes that the Speaker of the House is dishonest.”

Smith: “You wouldn’t be saying that if the Speaker was a member of your own party.”

Which influential technique is being employed by Smith in the following example?

Smith: “If we don’t take the necessary national security steps, it won’t be a question of if we’ll get hit with another terrorist attack, but when.”

Jones: “Isn’t putting a security camera on every city block a little excessive?”

Smith: “I’ll tell you what’s excessive: your plan to gut the defense budget.”

Which fallacy best describes Smith’s logical mistake in the following example?

Smith: “We put my job plan into effect in my state, and it reduced the unemployment rate. That’s why I know my plan can add jobs if enacted nationwide.”

Which fallacy best describes Smith’s logical mistake in the following example?

Smith: “The phrase ‘All men are created equal’ was written by a white slave-owner who inherited his wealth, so you’ll forgive me if I don’t believe it.”

Which fallacy best describes Smith’s logical mistake in the following example?

Smith: “The phrase ‘All men are created equal’ was written by a white slave-owner who inherited his wealth, so you’ll forgive me if I don’t believe it.”

Which fallacy best describes Smith’s logical mistake in the following example?

Jones: “Generally speaking, economic sanctions don’t work.”

Smith: “Tell that to Nelson Mandela and all the other blacks who were suffering under South African apartheid before economic sanctions helped set them free.”

Which fallacy best describes the logical mistake in the following example?

“If we legalize homosexual marriage, next they’ll want us to legalize bestiality, polygamy, and pedophilia.”

Which fallacy best describes the logical mistake in the following example?

“Republicans can’t complain about government spending since President Bush increased spending by leaps and bounds.”

Which fallacy best describes the logical mistake in the following example?

“The price of gas is unacceptable, which is why we should be more open to talks with the North Korean leadership.”

Which fallacy best describes the  logical mistake in the following example?

“You can’t trust my opponent’s stance on alternative energy, since more coal mining is done in her district than in any other part of the state.”

Which fallacy best describes Bob's logical mistake in the following example?

Eric: “Lowering the capital gains tax would do more to stimulate the economy than another stimulus package.”

Bob: “I remind my opponent that the middle class is shrinking and his plan to take money from the poor and give it to the rich can only make things worse.”

Which fallacy best describes the logical mistake in the following example?

“We should reduce gun control, because look at cities like Chicago that have strict gun control laws and lead the country in gun crime.”

Which fallacy best describes the logical mistake in the following example?

“Clearly we are becoming more communistic, because all communist states have failed in the long run, and this country is on the decline.”

Which fallacy best describes the logical mistake in the following example?

“We can’t even talk about a path to citizenship until we secure the borders.”

Which fallacy best describes the logical mistake in the following example?

“War is unjustifiable if even one civilian is needlessly killed.”

Which fallacy best describes Emma's logical mistake in the following example?

Maggie: “I believe the government should help fund stem-cell research.”

Emma: “So you support legalizing murder?”

Which fallacy best describes the logical mistake in the following example?

“I think people only disagree with the president because of the color of his skin.”

Which fallacy best describes Todd's logical mistake in the following example?

Aiden: “How can you justify filibustering the Supreme Court nominee when you promised during your campaign that you would never resort to filibustering any judicial nominations whatsoever?”

Todd: “I promised I wouldn’t filibuster any judicial nomination that wasn’t so blatantly extremist and unqualified for the highest court in the land.”

Which fallacy best describes the  logical mistake in the following example?

"Abortion is murder because it's the unjustified killing of a human being."

Which fallacy best describes Brandon's logical mistake in the following example?

Andrew: “Tougher enforcement and sentencing guidelines are the only way to curb the drug problem in this country.”

Brandon: “You’re a convicted marijuana user, so your opinion is worthless.”

Which fallacy best describes Katie's logical mistake in the following example?

Katie: “Raising the minimum wage will damage the economy.”

Nina: “How do you figure?”

Katie: “Can you show me how it won’t?”

Which fallacy best describes Ed's logical mistake in the following example?

Ed: “In my wildest dreams I can’t imagine how my proposals could damage the local ecosystem. That's how I know they're safe.”

Which fallacy best describes John's logical mistake in the following example?

John: “It could be dangerous for Congress to tinker with a system that has worked fine for three generations just because it’s become unpopular this year.”

Which fallacy best describes Jane's logical mistake in the following example?

Jane: “I hear the Iranians love my opponent’s stance on women’s rights.”

Which fallacy best describes Jane's logical mistake in the following example?

Jane: “I hear the Iranians love my opponent’s stance on women’s rights.”

Which of the following is a definition of advocacy?

What follows is an mock advocacy email.  What makes it an ineffective email?

The Honorable Representative Jane Doe
US Senate
Washington, DC  20515

Dear Representative Doe:

As a mother, I'd like you to do everything in your power to expand funding to education. I read that our state is near the bottom of the 50 states in primary and secondary education. I can imagine that you have many priorities, and I know these are hard economic times, but we can't lose sight of the big picture: education is key to the future. I am worried about my daughter's future and we should be concerned about the economic future of this state. In the same article, I read that China, Japan, most of Europe and many other countries spend a greater percentage on education than our country does.

Sincerely,

Beth Q. Voter

In part of our write-up on advocacy and strategic action, we list eight questions to ask yourself before you take action.  Which of the following is not on the list?

We also created a list of 12 key principles of advocacy.  Which two of the following four do you think are the most important?  [Note: you must pick two responses before you can find out if either response is correct.]

Here are another 4 key principles of advocacy (of the 12).  Which two do you think are most important? [Note: you must pick two responses before you can find out if either response is correct.]

Here are the remaining four of our twelve principles of advocacy.  Which one do you think is most important?