Op-Ed: Why the Democrats should Steer Clear from the Politics of Fear

Since the dawn of the 20th century (and surely before then), the politics of fear have played a pivotal role in elections world-wide; the 2008 US Presidential election is no exception. So the question is, who is playing the game, and to what effect?

It has long been an assumption in the modern American political atmosphere that it is the GOP that participates (and dominates) the politics of fear. A quick search for ‘politics of fear’ yields us results from commondreams.com, the BBC, a Rolling Stone article, and a video presentation featuring a house speech by Ron Paul. Heck, even if we search for ‘politics of fear, democrats’, we are led repeatedly to a recent article by Timothy Garton Ash on the both the state of the US economy and the Conservative Party’s historic ability to claim economic mindfulness despite a history marred with deficits, inflation, and decreases in net GDP per capita. In Ash’s article, he cites a report by Michael Kinsley of slate.com which – with full support from interactive tables – serves to prove Ash’s assertion that the Democratic Party has throughout history been the better manager of the US economy. The final point that Ash makes in his article is that, in lieu of the American economy, that the team of Obama-Biden and the democrats should without question be selected by concerned middle class citizens over McCain-Palin and the republicans. Ash concludes that if the democrats are not elected into government that this must be further proof of the GOP’s ability to play on and with the politics of fear. And as we continue to look at the search results yielded from the ‘politics of fear, democrats’ search, we see similarly argued articles. The conservatives participate in the politics of fear, not the democrats. One of the featured articles, simply titled “The Politics of Fear” goes so far as to say “If the Democrats were to use the politics of fear to win in 2008, I think we would have crossed a line. We may need to buy into the spin cycle to win the election, but delving into fearmongering would be to sell a little too much of our souls. It would also be politically compromising.” But the democrats have and are participating in the politics of fear. As John R. Lott, writing for the Philadelphia Inquirer, points out, that in isolating John McCain as “more of the same” and as a man with “not a dime worth of difference (between he and George W. Bush)”, the Democratic Party is ignoring fact in favour of fear. As pointed out by Lott:

“The American Conservative Union finds that the average Republican senator voted conservatively 85 percent of the time, and that the average Democrat voted conservatively 13 percent of the time. McCain voted conservatively 74 percent of the time.

Although it's at the opposite end of the political spectrum, Americans for Democratic Action essentially agreed. It found that the average Republican senator voted liberally just over 12 percent of the time, and the average Democrat voted liberally 89 percent of the time. McCain voted liberally 24 percent of the time - twice as frequently as the average Republican.

McCain missed too many votes campaigning in 2007 to be included in the National Journal ranking for that year, but it found that he voted conservatively 59.4 percent of the time from 2001 to 2006. (…)

In contrast to the very liberal ratings given to Obama, the interest groups find that there are about as many senators to McCain's right as there are to his left. This might not endear him to many conservatives or liberals. But it is a real distortion to claim he is a Bush clone.”

So while it still may be true that the Republican Party is the party of ‘quintessential demagoguery’, there should be no question that in this election the democrats too have engaged in rabblerousing tactics as part of their campaign. The point is that the Democratic Party, long considered unable or unwilling to participate in the politics of fear have – throughout this election – unveiled a new and more visceral strategy aimed at securing power by discrediting their opposition. In constantly portraying McCain as Bush 43 replica, the Democratic Party officially taken the gloves off, but as pointed out by Lott, there is an inherent risk in doing so. This same was pointed out by Ron Paul in the earlier video. If the voters look past the slogans, they will find the rhetoric empty. Of course, the same is true for those who choose to look into the party of the ‘quintessential demagogues.’ To quote Ash:

“If you think the economy is the most important issue in this election - which nearly two-thirds of those asked say they do, while less than a quarter name Iraq - and if you are a rational punter, then your rational choice would be to give the Democrats a chance of doing better than the Bush administration has done.

If people vote with their heads, that is. But people often vote with other parts of their anatomy (heart, gut - choose your organ). And there's a deeper politics of fear that runs against Obama. This is not about facts and policies, but about perceptions, characters, stories, dreams - about feelings that men and women only half-recognise and rarely confess.”

With that in mind, the Democratic Party need to either rethink the angle behind their advertisements or else consider suspending the ads based around fear. The selling point that the democrats should be reminding concerned middle-class, undecided voters is their track record, as done by Kinsley. If the world of google searches are correct, there should be no doubt that the GOP can play the politics of fear better than the Democratic Party. And in looking at the way in which the Democratic Party has tried to estrange McCain supporters during this election, it is all but clear that the democrats haven’t become fear mongering chess-masters over the past four years. As a result, the democrats should – in making their case to the voters of America – stick to the facts, look at them deeply, and abandon the inaccurate attack ads that have paved and are paving the way for the GOP to play their game to the fullest, knowing full well that when the democrats complain of dirty politics in the future, they (the GOP) can throw these ‘thinner than McCain’s hairline’ attack pieces back at them as proof that it was a tactic being employed by both sides. So what do you think? Do you agree with Kingsley? Is Ash’s belief that if the economy is your primary concern, you should vote democratic correct? Should the Democratic Party abandon fear mongering advertisements? Thanks for reading. GRMM