New Fear
November 7th, 2005 | by Dr. Forbush |Fear has been the most successful issue of the Bush administration. To get elected the Bush administration used fear to lure the Christian Right to defend the family and save the unborn Children. Well meaning Christians were told that the Democrats were heathen, Godless, morally and ethically empty people. The only way to save the country was to put some morals back into the Oval Office.
Well, after the 2000 election the Bush administration languished with no clear direction, except to shut down FEMA’s emergency preparedness and dismiss the idea that terrorists might attack the US. When September 11th united the country the Bush administration used the opportunity to raise the specter of fear. Fear of another September 11th gave control to the Bush administration and the Orwellianly named Patriot Act was passed to take away some liberty. And, with this additional power the Bush administration set into motion the build up to the War in Iraq.
Fear of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) was a fear tactic used by the Bush administration to gather support for the illegal invasion of Iraq. The idea of making a preemptive strike on any country was once considered unthinkable by any Democracy. In fact even our own beloved Bush administration tells us that the reason for the US invasion of Iraq is to create a Democracy for the Middle East. We are told that Democracies do not invade their neighbors, therefore creating a Democracy will make the region safer. The irony of course is that the invasion of Iraq itself disproves this very theory. Instead we should beware of the power of fear in a Democracy. And, Fear can and will be used in Iraq for Iraq’s own reasons.
The 2004 election again was another exercise in fear. The Bush pundits worked 24/7 to create the illusion of John F. Kerry the evil henchman. By keeping George W Bush out of the spotlight and pointing the spotlight at a created mythos of John Kerry the Bush campaign urged people to fear John Kerry. But, they pushed the same fear messages about gay marriage and abortions that they pushed in the first campaign. And in addition George W Bush raised the specter of 9/11 at every available moment. Creating fear and appearing to be the solution was the entire strategy of the 2004 Bush campaign.
It is interesting that a political party that considers itself the party of security uses insecurity to push its agenda. Making people feel less secure is the goal of the Republican Party. If they can do it on the national level they do it on the Domestic level. The want high unemployment, because it drives wages lower, but it also creates enough insecurity to make people think twice about leaving their low wage job. They want insecurity in the housing market and in the health care system.
So, it should not be a surprise to hear George W Bush pushing more fear on the American people. This time George W Bush is telling us to worry about bird flu. The avian influenza pandemic could happen, but there is little that we can do about it at this point. The H5N1 strain of the virus needs to mutate before vaccines can be designed and manufactured. There are two drugs that could be used to help fight the virus, Tamiflu and Relenza. And, George W Bush’s speech yesterday may trigger the purchase and stockpiling of these drugs, at great benefit to these companies.
Once again George W Bush is using fear to motivate the American people. Based on the Bush administration track record I would be extremely skeptical about the motivation of the administration. Is this just one more way to give a handout to his friends who may happen to be stock holders in these companies? Or, maybe frightening the American people is another attempt to boost his poll numbers. With such a dishonest government it is certainly difficult to know what is really important. I would recommend listening to the experts.
Fortunately at least one Republican has publicly stated his skepticism of the Bush administration. Sen. Arlen Specter asked where the Bush administration got the intelligence to jump to this conclusion. He said, “We need a better way of finding out what the hell is going on.” This skepticism is a very good thing for our country. Hopefully the other 54 Republicans in the Senate and the Republicans in the House will also question the administration’s cult of fear.
politics, Iraq, Iraq War, Avian Influeza, Bird Flu, Impeach Bush
9 Responses to “New Fear”
By The Bastard on Nov 7, 2005 | Reply
Well, for one thing Rummie will make out on this. He owns some $5 million dollars worth of Gileard. The makers of Tamiflu.
By Jersey McJones on Nov 7, 2005 | Reply
Rummy will get his dirty money, Bush will get his fear, and Lord knows someone is going to invent this disease…
By Tom Harper on Nov 7, 2005 | Reply
Yup, fear is a potent weapon; and Rove and the other puppetmasters sure know how to use it. It’s too bad there are so many gullible people. People like Rove know exactly which button to push, and they know the precise reaction that they’ll get from millions of people.
Bush 41 made the mistake of “winning” the Gulf War too quickly. By the time he was up for re-election, the public euphoria had faded, people were worried about the economy, and out he went.
If Bush 43 learned anything, it was: I’ll get us quagmired in the Middle East, and everyone will think I’m the only one who can get us out.
By LiberPaul on Nov 7, 2005 | Reply
If there has been one thing I hate the most about the shrub admin, is the fear mongering. Fear is how they have chosen to govern.
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”
-H. L. Mencken
By Assman on Nov 7, 2005 | Reply
This is what Bush said to Chavez “The other seeks to roll back the democratic progress of the past two decades by playing to fear, pitting neighbor against neighbor and blaming others for their own failures to provide for the people,” he said. “We must make tough decisions today to ensure a better tomorrow.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051107/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_45
Bush says leaders should not use fear, or blame others for there problems, but yet he uses it himself, the liberals don’t have plan for your safety fear, the GOP homeland security plan is in place, hurricane arrives, Bush homeland security plan does not come to aid of those in need. When the hurricane hit there was advance notice. Great homeland security plan, can’t even mobilze the plan when there is advance notice of an impending disaster. When the terroist attack there won’t be any advance notice.
By Phoenixboi on Nov 7, 2005 | Reply
Great Post!
Fear unfortunately is being used to control the masses, and it really works too.
It’s happening not only in the US but everywhere, including here in Oz.
By windspike on Nov 7, 2005 | Reply
Unfortuantely, mongering fear is not the only thing the W, Rove and Co. excels at: waging illigit war, spending free for alls, cutting revenue generation, killing the environment, etc…heaping debt on the next generations….generally fouling it up for whomever gets into office next.
By Liberal Jarhead on Nov 11, 2005 | Reply
It’s been striking how consistently the neocons accuse others of doing what they themselves are doing. If you believed them, you’d think the Democrats were fiscally irresponsible, dishonest with the legislature and the public, cynically exploiting people’s values, fearmongering, and cowardly. In psychology that’s called projection. A person who’s afraid to face his own issues sees them in others - like Bush talking about how the terrorists are willing to kill innocent people to achieve their goals. (What was the count of dead Iraqi and Afghan civilians again?) You can tell a lot about a person by what they spend most of their mental energy on, and these guys eat, sleep and live vindictiveness, paranoia, secrecy, lies, weird sexual obsessions (Ashcroft and his fear of statue tits; their current fear that if girls get the vaccine against cervical cancer, they’ll take that as encouragement to go screw their brains out; their homophobia; the sexualized slant of their torture methods), anti-intellectualism, elitism, and general hatefulness. This is not only the most corrupt administration since at least Harding but maybe the most mentally ill in U.S. history (and I’ve been working as a psychotherapist since I retired from the USMC, so I know some things about mental illness.) Bush is more blind to his own dark side than anyone else I know of, and no one can control what they won’t look at.