Hurd did nothing to keep people safe or lower anyone’s cost of living. Instead, he has helped advance Trump’s policies, like the Iran war, that has increased cost of living for most people on Earth, and the Big Beautiful Bill that kicked Americans off SNAP food benefits and Medicaid.
There’s a name for the type of misleading behavior Republican CD-3 House Rep. Jeff Hurd is using in his recent mail and TV campaign ads: it’s called “paltering.”
Paltering is not a kind of rhetorical flair; it’s considered intentionally deceptive behavior.
Paltering is one of three primary types of deception that people use in sales, negotiations and politics:
1) Lying by commission, or intentionally making false statements;
2) Lying by omission, or intentionally withholding relevant facts or context; and
3) Paltering, or the act of misleading others by making statements that are technically true, but leaving out critical context in order to convey a false impression.
Examples of paltering:
We’ve all experienced paltering or been targets of it before, most likely without recognizing it.
Here are some examples of paltering:
A used car sale: A customer shopping for a used car asks the salesman if the car he’s interested in is in good mechanical condition. The salesman answers, “I drove it today for an hour and had no problems at all.” The statement is technically true, but masks the fact that the dealership discovered a slow oil leak.
A job interview: An employer asks a job applicant if she has ever been fired from a job. She answers truthfully, saying “I left my last position after a mutual agreement with management.” While it may be true that she and her former employer agreed it was time for her to go, she leaves out the critical context that her employer told her she needed to either resign or be fired for poor performance.
A home purchase: A realtor tells a prospective home buyer that “The roof was completely replaced in 2017,” which is technically true, but omits the fact that a hailstorm damaged it last month and it is currently leaking.
Colorado CD-3 Congressman Jeff Hurd voted to eliminate funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the source of important news and information shows like All things Considered, Morning Edition, Weekend Edition and Fresh Air (Photo: Facebook)
Palterers can convince themselves they are being honest because the statements they use are true. They can tell themselves there’s no need to feel shame or moral conflict over what they are doing, since they aren’t explicitly telling lies. If they get called out for deceptive behavior, they claim they’ve been misunderstood. So paltering allows Hurd to hang on to an image of himself as a moral, upstanding, behaviorally clean citizen.
But paltering is risky because it can backfire.
Paltering undermines the trust of people who are on the receiving end of it. People who recognize paltering often feel scammed by and disappointed in the palterer.
In Hurd’s ads, Romero ais portrayed as corrupt, citing as proof a vote Romero made in 2015 while he was on Aspen’s City Council. Romero voted along with a majority of Council members to waive some development requirements for a particular hotel project. Hurd also calls Romero out for going to work for the same developer after Romero finished out his final term on city council.
Paltering can backfire. When people recognize it, they feel betrayed.
While it’s true Romero voted for the hotel proposal and went to work for the developer after leaving Council, Hurd omitted crucial context:
Romero voted along with with a majority of Aspen Council members to approve the development;
The Council waived development requirements — like height restrictions and setbacks — to try to make the proposal work, because the plan was to build a rare economy hotel in downtown Aspen. Expensive luxury hotels dominate in Aspen, especially downtown, making it very hard for average people with average incomes to afford to visit.
Romero broke no laws or rules by going to work for the developer as a consultant after leaving city council, as no laws or rules prohibited it.
In Aspen, any proposed development for which the Council has waived rules or regulations must go to a vote of the people before being built. This particular proposal was put on the ballot and voted down, rendering it moot, so it was never built.
Leaving out all the additional information people need to fairly evaluate the situation is paltering.
By paltering, Hurd can convince himself he’s being moral, and protect himself from accusations that he is lying.
Paltering is devious behavior done with intent to deceive. People who know Dwayne Romero say he’s honest, upstanding and moral and are offended by Hurd’s portrayals of Romero as dirty and dishonest.
“My guess is one day Jeff Hurd will wonder why he thought he had to be cruel.
If you haven’t seen his mailbox flyers and television ads urging you to vote for him instead of his opponent, Dwayne Romero, I hope you don’t. They are brutal. They are malicious. Intended to pop, they are nothing but burnt kernels of truth settled at the bottom of the political ad snack bowl where they sit waiting to crack the molars of honest discussion. They are cruel.
One ad uses a doctored-up picture of Romero in a black hat and wrinkled black suit, evoking the image of a gangster, shoving stacks of money into the inside breast pocket. His face is re-touched to appear dirty, wrinkled and blotched. The words in the ads paint an even worse, altered version of reality.
Paltering allows Jeff Hurd to convince himself he’s moral and honest, but fewer people are fooled less of the time when they can recognize deceptive behavior.
The actual photo of Romero, before filthy hands adulterated it, undoubtedly showed him proudly wearing his U.S. Army Ranger cap that he earned by graduating from West Point before serving with this prestigious Army Special Ops group in the Persian Gulf and coming home with a Bronze Star. On the merely human side, Romero is friendly. He’s likable. He’s honest to a fault.
…I don’t believe we will see Romero counter-punching Hurd with vicious attack ads. It’s something I hope voters will notice and key into. I believe he will stick to the issues and run a clean race. You may think I’m naive, but I think I know Romero.
…Malicious and misleading political campaigns reduce candidates who initiate them into the worst version of themselves. They take brutal tolls on both candidates along with their families and friends. They divide communities. They foster anger and hatred. They seed animosity among the people ostensibly being represented. It divides them.
Considering all of this collateral damage, it is safe to say that a nasty campaign leaves the constituency in shambles. It’s a heck of a way to begin a new term in office. This raises a big question: Who will be the better candidate to build the people back up after such a destructive ordeal? Is it the candidate who caused it, or is it the candidate who endured it with principles intact?
It’s a good reason to vote for Romero.”
[With thanks to Dave Edwards, Democratic candidate for Mesa County Treasurer, who explained to me what paltering is, recognized Hurd’s use of it and pointed it out to me.]
