A beautiful study in rhetoric.
Livingston County Sheriff Mike Murphy explains why he is refusing to enforce Governor Whitmer’s Executive Orders. Early on in the video, he explains that of course one must choose which laws to enforce and which not to. This relates to my critique of Luigi Zingales and some of the interesting discussion that followed in the comments on my post.
I call it a beautiful study in rhetoric because early on he says that he’s not trying to persuade anyone. Instead, he wants to explain why he’s doing what he’s doing. He does the latter very well, which also helps achieve the former. If you think the person talking to you is not trying to persuade you, your defenses typically fall.
By the way, notice his point that some of the provisions that Whitmer wanted enforced, such as the one on motorboats, were not even in any of the Executive Orders.
In case watching a 14-minute video seems like too much of a time commitment, notice that you need only watch the first 11 minutes.
READER COMMENTS
Phil H
May 21 2020 at 3:48am
His discussion of how the various systems are going to interact together – the criminal courts and the civil courts, particularly – is really good. I was persuaded by the end. I hope that his department will still be sending the message “stay at home,” but criminalising people should be the last possible resort, surely.
David Henderson
May 21 2020 at 8:58am
Thanks, Phil H. I’m glad you caught that. I found it one of the most interesting and persuasive parts of the talk. I hadn’t thought it through all the way before. This sheriff clearly did.
Thomas Hutcheson
May 22 2020 at 8:45am
Too bad ICE agents (and I’m tempted to say customs agents) do not adopt the same logic.
David Henderson
May 22 2020 at 2:02pm
That would be great.
Comments are closed.