"Our group doesn't organize around X (bad thing), it organizes around Y (reasonable thing)"

I think it's called the "Mot and Bratley strategy," but obviously I'm wrong because it's unsearchable.

There's a name for an (often political) tactic, where someone has a core issue X that's totally reasonable, but does a bunch of other stuff that is less acceptable. Whenever someone points out these issues, the person falls back to "I'm just focused on X," all of that other stuff is unrelated.

What's the name of this strategy?

Solution 1:

Motte and bailey which derives from a castle or fortification where you'd have an easy to defend central portion (the motte) and a harder to defend larger outer area (the bailey). You move back and forth between positions depending on what's more convenient, much as the defenders of a castle might start in the less fortified open space but but retreat to the highly fortified mound. Reportedly coined by the philosopher Nicholas Shackel.