Fear and Loathing in America

Keep the American people fearful and angry.  

This is the unfortunate consequence of the last two successful Republican presidential election campaigns.  President Bush, Dick Cheney and Carl Rove crafted this strategy, dabbling in it in 2000: 

• "Can't vote for McCain - he's got an illegitimate black child!" (Reference)

and perfecting it in 2004:

• "You can't vote for the Democratic nominee - the terrorists will have a field day!" (Reference)
• "You can't allow same sex marriages - everyone will do it!"(Reference)
• "Polls are slipping - time for the Orange threat level!"(Reference)

 Ironically, 8 years after being the target of this sort of campaign, McCain has latched onto the "fear is good" approach.  His TV spots are classics of the genre and keep pushing the "fear" points:

• "You can't trust this guy - he's too young/inexperienced"
  
• "He has fanatical followers - listen to that chanting!"
  
• "Europe loves him - certainly can't be trusted"
  
• "Celebrities like him - he definitely can't be trusted!"
  

In addition, the commercials are alarmingly "dumbed down".  Now I know that no one has gone broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public, but come on!  Using Paris Hilton and Charlton Heston as Moses to make your point?  

Of course  there's a large segment of the population that need the message simplified - they are the same folks that voted for Bush because they thought they'd be comfortable sharing a six pack with him.  Given that fact, you do have to hand it to McCain's strategists - a simple message with a subtle (or not so subtle) fear subtext may just do the trick.  I guess I'm just hoping against hope that it doesn't work.  If the strategy somehow backfires or fails, perhaps we can evolve toward a more rational discussion of the relevant issues.  Maybe, just maybe, we don't have to walk around fearing our shadows.

But I fear that may never happen...