"To Tell the Truth" about Amendment 5, the tax shift proposal on the August 4 ballot

By Ray McCarty, President and CEO, Associated Industries of Missouri

Remember the television show, "To Tell the Truth?" The show featured a panel of celebrities who would take turns asking questions of three contestants. Two of them were lying and one was sworn "to tell the truth" and the object of the game was for the celebrity panelists to determine who was actually telling the truth.

The Amendment 5 campaign, like most political campaigns, has been like the game show but with greater consequences. When we started compiling this article, our original intent was to make a list of lies and half-truths and dispel each of them with facts, but before we could finish compiling the list, there would be another ad, another half-truth, etc. The list was growing faster than Pinocchio's nose.

Add to that the manipulation and personal attacks that are airing now, declaring if you are against Amendment 5, you are standing with Socialists, and the postcards promoting Amendment 5 showing your voting score and declaring your neighbors will know whether you voted or not. While legal, the latter tactic reeks of voter intimidation that you would most likely see in a communist or socialist country - not the U.S.A.!

One of our members noted at least two fallacies with the campaign for Amendment 5. First is the fallacy of loaded language: language that primarily plays on the emotions. It does not make an argument at all, but is only a form of manipulation. They try to point to things that will evoke an emotional response like "data centers" or "socialism," which has nothing to do with the arguments made for or against Amendment 5. The second is "ad hominem" (literally, “to the man”): attacking the person of a source rather than his or her qualifications or reliability, or the actual argument he or she makes. Calling people "socialists" or insinuating that they are not good citizens if they do not vote a certain way does not address the arguments against Amendment 5. In fact, using this fallacy is a declaration that a person has no defense against the arguments. Usually, that means they have lost the debate.

We are going to try a different approach. We will go through each part of the proposal and translate it for you as honestly as we can so you can make an informed decision about Amendment 5.

If you would like our honest assessment of the actual language of Amendment 5, please click HERE, and we promise to give you honest answers based on our knowledge and experience.