Mehdi Hassan connected “Flood the Zone” with “The Gish Gallop” (the Gallop/Flood?), but nobody really got it
Democrats are flummoxed by Steve Bannon’s “Flood the Zone” strategy, yet it was identified in 1994 as the Gish Gallop as noted in Mehdi Hassan's 2023 book. As usual, the Democrats didn’t get it.
FRAME IT, NAME IT, AND CLAIM IT, THEN HOPE SOMEBODY ACTUALLY DOES SOMETHING
I have lived a life of no one listening. I was 26 when the band “Missing Persons” came out with their MTV era song, “Words” where they asked the enduring question of, “What are words for, when no one listens anymore?”
We’re now living in a sea of words (including impotent Substack essays like this). No one listens anymore. And such is the deal with the “flood the zone” strategy of the past three months. People had identified it as a strategy long ago, but everyone was stunned when it happened, because, alas, they hadn’t listened.
Actually, the people the Democrats really should listen to are the Category Pirates of Silicon Valley with their template of, “Frame it, name it, and claim it.” Steve Bannon understands the importance of this process, big time.
So here’s how the “Gallop/Flood” identification timeline went.
STEP ONE: THE GISH GALLOP FROM EVOLUTIONIST GENIE SCOTT
About 4 years ago I begged my old buddy Eugenie Scott to write a major editorial about “The Gish Gallop.” She coined the term in 1994. It refers to the debating technique perfected by creationist Duane Gish where he would flood his opponent with misinformation and distortions at such a rate that the opponent couldn’t keep up and would become flustered, essentially losing the argument.
In 2005 when I interviewed evolutionists for my documentary, “Flock of Dodos,” several of them talked about having run into the Gish Gallop. They found it unfair and hugely frustrating but apparently audiences didn’t care as they thought it was fun watching an academic get bamboozled.
The technique has become a standard ploy of the right, and thus I implored Genie to write something about it, but in the end she was too busy enjoying her retirement from the organization she founded, The National Center for Science Education (I don’t blame her).
STEP TWO: BANNON’S “FLOOD THE ZONE”
The second Trump administration has begun with an “everything, everywhere” strategy that has been labeled “Flood the Zone.” The NY Times dug into the term and tracked it back to conservative strategist Steve Bannon in 2018. Though the Times is a little more dignified in talking about it, publications like Vulture give Bannon’s full labeling of it as, “Flood the Zone with Shit.”
“Flood the Zone” is the term of the past three months, but it is actually the same dynamic as the Gish Gallop, going all the way back to the 1990’s.
STEP THREE: HASAN’S CHAPTER ON GISH GALLOP AND BANNON
In 2023 progressive broadcaster Mehdi Hasan published his book, “Win Every Argument.” In chapter 11, titled, “Beware of the Gish Galloper,” he makes the connection between Genie’s “Gallop” and Bannon’s “Flood” techniques. He actually offers some reasonable advice on how to deal with it by locking on to just one argument (i.e. the singular narrative) to refute instead of the many.
But unfortunately, his essay on the Gallop/Flood is just one of many topics in his book, resulting in minimal attention. Which means what was really needed was an entire book
STEP FOUR: THE DEMOCRAT CHICKENS WITH THEIR HEADS CUT OFF
The rest is today’s current sad history. The Democratic party has zero grasp of “The Singular Narrative” which is the dynamic Hasan had pointed to.
Over and over and over again, they have no ability to find a single message and unify around it. Just look at all the protests happening right now. What is the equal and opposite slogan to MAGA? There isn’t one.
Rachel Maddow loves to review all the protests every night on her show and applaud the most creative signs, BUT … she’s missing the entire problem. There shouldn’t be thousands of completely different signs at the rallies. There should mostly be just ONE SIGN, ONE SLOGAN, ONE NARRATIVE, ONE MESSAGE. That is how you penetrate through the noise of today’s information overloaded society.
Just as Mehdi Hasan said for how you combat the Gallop/Flood.
It’s the power of THE ONE THING, which the business world understands. Nicholas Kristof identified it beautifully 16 years ago. But once identified, none of these Democrats know how to pursue it. They are constantly moving on to the new message/label/slogan, as they scoff at the Republicans for their supposed inability to move past MAGA.
Which ends up being their whole problem.