do conservatives use fear and terror to win elections?

Question

there has not been an orange alert or any alert since the 2004 election, im sure they will suddenly appear before mid-term elections.

Answer 1

The Conservatives also use DieBold rigged voting machines to win elections.

Answer 2

The fundamentalists and evangelicals who came out in such great numbers this election are driven, and have always been driven, by fear. It was Nietzsche who analyzed this fear most trenchantly. The religious orientation of these people is characterized by a constant fear of the Other that is perpetually seeking to infiltrate, seduce, and ultimately destroy the minds and lives of good Christians.
Karl Rove and those who produce the image of the President understand this, better than us left-leaning types. We tend to live in small liberal enclaves in urban areas. That is not where most of America lives. While we fought for peace and justice, the President,s handlers were busy harnessing terrorism to the vision of a decadent America, an America too tolerant of the Other. Note, among other shifts, how the term liberalism has migrated from being a insult that has primarily to do with spending to becoming one that has more to do with being soft on the Other.

Those who argue about whether it is terrorism or gay marriage that sunk the Kerry campaign miss the point. They are two aspects of the same consciousness. And they are at the heart of the Bush administration,s politics of fear.

As many have pointed out, the appeal to fear dominates the Bush presidency. From capriciously raised and lowered terror alerts to invasions of individual privacy to the suppression of dissent to the stoking of racism against Arabs and Muslims, the administration,s strategy for consent is driven by periodic infusions of fear. What has been missed, however, is how cleanly that appeal fits into the religious framework of the population that has just put him in office a second time.

Not everyone in the United States who has been harnessed by this fear is an evangelical or a fundamentalist. Far from it. However, the appeal to fear, in its convergence with the deepest motivations of many Americans, has helped to create an unmistakable atmosphere of anxiety. Foreigners are often puzzled by this, as well they should be. What I am describing here is a peculiarly American phenomenon.

Since 9/11 the politics of fear has become the point of intersection between the political/corporate elites who run this country and the religious elites and their flock who offer them the mandate to do so. It has been the great strength of the Bush administration. As such, it is also its great weakness.

While those driven by a religious zealotry against the Other are nourished by fear, most Americans are debilitated by it. They are weary of the anxiety they are asked daily to sustain. A politics that counters fear with something other than fear would, if not immediately then certainly soon, be embraced by many Americans who were frightened into offering the President his renewed "mandate".

Answer 3

Yes they are able to infuence that herd of sheep with fear, terror and religion and I just pray that Dorie* is right and that our next pres. will be Dem. That would show me that America is really paying attention and give me a little hope. Wonder what Dr. Cheeseheads tone would be had the shoe been on the other foot? Bet he would have been whining the loudest. Do a study on the history of the Bush Empire and their relationship with the oil world.

Answer 4

Fear and terror - funny you should mention that. You mean fear & terror like telling Senior Citizens that the GOP will cut your benefits so you will not get meds & have to eat Alpo. You mean fear & terror like democraps tell the minorites that the GOP will take away all their free social programs.

Last but not LEAST - You mean FEAR & TERROR that the the sky is FALLING as propagandaed by Al "INCONVEINENT TRUTH" GORE? NO I wouldn't think that fear & terror wouldn't be taken advantage of by both sides. There's just one BIG diference - Republicans will actually make peolpe's lives better and give them more money. Democraps will keep peolpe serviant & dependant on their social programs - so that they don't seek to better themselves - just learn to live off what is freely given away.

Answer 5

Very good, precise delusional thinking... if you keep telling yourselves that elections are rigged or that Republicans use extraordinary means to win elections - it doesn't cause you to change your thinking, and you can go on losing elections because you have no platform, no ideas, nothing of substance to offer. You prattle on endlessly about how you were cheated, blah, blah, blah, Bush uses fear, blah, blah, blah... When will you wake up and realize that the Dems have no realistic alternatives to offer - your "Hate America First" rhetoric and "wah wah wah we got cheated" is so old, tired, pathetic and groundless that nobody listens or cares anymore. Ideas and courage and strength of conviction and realistic action is what makes this country great. Your whining is pathetic and you really need to stop.

Answer 6

It seems like the people that know the least about any group, let alone the neo-con movement, are the very people that want to make false claims of "scare tactics". If you were really interested in the truth you wouldnt decide that something you know nothing about is automatically evil and shut down to any argument that says otherwise.

Answer 7

Incredible you should ask that since it's the most fundamental method of the liberal democrats! They scare the poor into thinking the rich hate them and want to make life worse for them. The scare the minorities into thinking the same thing. They're entire platform is based on race bating and class warfare!

Answer 8

NO!!! Its the Liberals because they go around telling all these old people that they are going to lose their Social Security checks and health insurance if they vote for Republicans and a bunch of other lies that are too numberous to put in here.

Answer 9

Both parties use fear and terror. Democrats tell lies about racism, sexism, ageism, etc. to make people afraid of Republicans. It's called politics, it is rarely about the truth.

Answer 10

conservatives use the truth and facts, if you see them as scare tactics then you need to wake up and take a good long hard look at whats going on both here and around the world