Fischer’s Historians’ Fallacies was my father’s way to introduce me to formal critical thinking. Though Fischer focussed on dissecting errors of thinking in historical writing, his insights apply to most of life. One of his fallacies, the fallacy of difference, seems to occur far too often during this campaign. I believe that the claim “Clinton is a Republican” is an example of this.
During a primary campaign it is natural and even wholesome to focus on the differences between the candidates. After all, the goal of primaries is to choose one among several people as the person to represent the party and to run in the general election, with the hope of governing afterwards.
It is fine therefore when people point to authentic differences between Hillary and Bernie. That’s how people weigh the candidates and choose between them.
It is a mistake, however, to go from the points of difference and conclude that Bernie and Hillary are two different kinds of political creatures. They’re not. They are both running as Democrats. They voted together 93% of the time in the senate. They are arguing about whether the minimum wage should be raised to $12 or to $15 an hour — Trump thinks wages are too high, and is running for a party that wants to abolish the minimum wage.
This is not just my perspective on Hillary, either. I’ll share some of the various measures that place her on the political spectrum, but there are many more that could be added.
Now, it may well be that the places where Hillary and Bernie differ are for you the most important policy questions. It may well be that for some on this site all Democrats are too far right and barely distinguishable from Republicans. However neither of those means that people can redefine words to mean whatever they want. Hillary is not a Republican.
An examination of positions that many commenters have found useful is this quiz, which allows you to compare your own positions to those of the candidates. The results may surprise you. The quiz told me that I agree with Bernie Sanders 98% — and with Hillary Clinton 98%. Jill Stein, 96%, Gary Johnson, 53%, and Donald Trump, 15%.