Dear Editor:
Watch this year's political advertisements and you'll discern a theme: fear.
Political ads are about fear. Be afraid of the government. Be afraid that wind farms will put people out of work. Be afraid of unions. The NRA strips the U.S. flag and has the United Nations coming to take away your guns and sovereignty.
Think clearly for a moment: how realistic is it for you to be afraid? Has the FBI come to take your guns? Has your employer fired you because a wind farm was built? Is there any real need for all this fear-mongering?
Well, sure there is. Fear motivates people to act without thinking. If I can make you scared of your neighbor, it's a lot easier for me to make you hate him. If I can make you scared that a bill that ensures your access to health care is actually going to take away your health care, then you won't think, you'll react. This is not some new invention in politics. It's the oldest of tricks, ruling through fear.
In the late 1930s a certain wily politician made everyone in the country afraid of people who were different than them. He made the middle class afraid of the wealthy. He made the native-born afraid of gypsies. He fomented hatred and fear of homosexuals. Then, over the next six years he used that hatred to organize what is now called the Holocaust against the objects of that hatred. The country was Germany, but you understand the point.
The way you get otherwise moral Christians to throw children into gas chambers without thinking is to make them afraid. The way certain organizations seek to influence your vote is by making you afraid in exactly the same way. The politics are different, but the tactics are the same.
In this country we used to judge candidates on ideas. Candidates talked about what they would do, and specific plans. Now some candidates can do no more than talk about what's wrong and their vague plans to "fix things."
Instead of championing a message, they instead scream "be afraid."
When you see these ads you should ask yourself, "what do they hope to get by making me so afraid of these things." The answer will come to you, and when it does, you should vote your conscience.