There's nothing more untruthful or telling about a persons character than when they use any tactic they can to win an argument - particularly when they don't have logic or public opinion on their side . This is quite clear in recent debates over key issues in this country. Reason and facts go out the window and one side simply tries to demonize the other and paint them in as negative a light as possible. This doesn't just come down to putting images of their opponent out there as Hitler or in some other negative light, but in the slight of speech they roll of their tongues with ease.
In the immigration debate this can be seen quite clearly by what I call The "Anti" Slander. Those in favor of our laws being enforced, with good reason, are labeled by the press and their opponents as anti-illegal immigration at best and simply anti-immigration or racist at worst. They use the word "anti" because it is a negative term and they hope to paint their opponents arguments - and the people delivering them - in as bad a light as possible.
Those actually calling for immigration laws to be enforced are pro-enforcement. They simply want the laws enforced and have many facts to back them up as to why. Their opponents though would never use such a term as "pro" to describe them though as it includes a positive connotation. The insinuation from them that pro-enforcement immigration activists are anti-immigration though is totally ludicrous and false and those spewing it are anti-truth.
Sure there are some in the pro-enforcement community who want to stop legal immigration for a time until we can get our borders and system under control. They have logical concerns, from homeland security to fiscal reality to assimilation issues. Those people aren't anti-immigration at all, they are pro-reform and many have no problems with immigration continuing once the system is fixed.
It doesn't take much to see this playing out on other issues as well. When flipping around the TV this morning and skipping past MSNBC I noted that they didn't refer to Democrats opposed to health care reform because of the public funding of abortion as pro-life, no they dubbed them anti-abortion. Another negative slam simply because NBC thinks that the president's health care reform should be passed. They couldn't refer to them as pro-life Democrats because that would sound a little too positive and give their arguments some credibility to be thought about by the average liberal watching MSNBC (who in general agree with them and like the little snide negative remark).
Those using such terms know what they are doing and are quite conscience of their actions. It is telling about their character in the long run though, that their position is so weak that they must go into the swamp of disgust and pull out every slimy tactic they can.
