There they go again : the politics of fear

According to Orrin Hatch, terrorists are looking forward to a victory by Democrats in November. I wonder what makes some politicians think that they can use the terrorism issue to scare Americans into voting for them or for their party. Terrorists want to kill Americans and they don't care about who is charge of Congress. All Americans, whether they are Democrats or Republicans, want to win the fight against terrorism even if they disagree about to achieve this common goal. In a democracy, dissent is not only tolerated, but also respected. Orrin Hatch should have argued for his strategy to fight against terrorism and showed how the one of the Democrats would not be effective. Maybe the reason why he chose the easy road, the one that leads to the gutter is because he doesn't have ideas and simply believe that ideology trumps pragmatism when it comes to the fight against terrorism.

Comments

[CW]

This has been going for a long time. This was a favorite tactic in the mid-term elections 2002 before the Iraq war. if I read my history books correctly, this was also a favorite method used by the Nazis to get and maintain support among the German citizens.

It is very effective: raise doubt, get people scared and they'll be willing to give up freedom to have security. They'll want strong leaders to protect them.

How can you argue against it?

[Kiki]

I don't like the Nazi analogy for I believe that it undermines your point, which is a good one. Those who use fear are not Nazi, but sleazy opportunists and there is a big, big difference between the two, Fear is an effective political tactic up to a point. There always come a time when the electorate start to be tired to be afraid and choose to vote for candidates who appeal to the best part of themselves.

[CW]

I know using Nazi analogies should be done carefully. Here I just wanted to point out what extremes have used fear for their purposes. Using fear doesn't mean you're a Nazi. It is important to remember though how the Nazi's used fear as a control mechanism. It shows where such tactics can lead.