"We have nothing to fear but...

...Everything! Take our Constitution! Save us Jeebus!!!"
-Some crippled dude (March 1933)

Another election year with George W. Bush in power can only mean one thing- FEAR!! Manipulating national security concerns for political benefit is one thing the Rove political machine has mastered. Actually thwarting terrorism... well, not so much. It's a strategy that works on two levels.

On the first level is convincing the American people that they are in great, mortal danger from evildoers and unless they duct tape up the windows and vote Republican, their families are doomed. This strategy was perfected in the 2004 presidential campaign with suspiciously-timed terror alerts, a Convention held in the city where 9/11 occurred, and ominous statements from the Vice President like "If we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again -- that we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States". It convinces American that their very lives depend on voting Republican; all other issues be damned.

On the second level is politically manipulating the Democratic party to side with the administration on key issues and scare them away from using critical rhetoric. We're seeing this already this year with the President issuing a warning to critics with ground rules on criticism, comparisons of Democrats' rhetoric to what Osama is saying, and Karl Rove turning opposition of warrantless wiretapping against the Democrats. All this is meant to say to the Democrats- 'Ease up on the President or we will convince your constituents that you're a member of Al Qaeda'. This second level was perfected in the 2002 congressional races. The White House rushed the Iraq resolution in the early Fall in order to force Democrats to sign it or risk appearing weak on terror. Sure enough, the key tactics Republican candidates used that year was running ads accusing their opponents of just that. The most famous victim of this was longtime Senator, and Vietnam veteran, Max Cleland. His opponent juxtaposed pictures of Cleland with Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden in TV ads. Expect a repeat of these tactics this year, as Democrats are pressured into moving to the right.

Glenn Greenwald explores this strategy:

What lies at the center of so many of our current political controversies is fear. Fear-mongering is the one and only weapon which Bush followers use time and again to solidify their support. When Karl Rove says, as he did yesterday, that "national security" is going to be the centerpiece of the GOP pitch leading into the 2006 elections, what he means is that they are going to spend the next 10 months doing everything possible to scare Americans as much as possible so that they once again dispense with all other issues and throw themselves into the arms of the party which promises to be their Protector...

Greenwald has previously discussed ways to combat this, as seen here- Attacking Bush's only weapon -- Fear

Finally, the new Tom Tomorrow cartoon confronts the fear-filled world of the far-right...