Letters to the Editor
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Fear is only one tactic
It's not surprising that fear is being used to sell this field of candidates. It represents one of several favorite tactics of the neoconservative movement that has become dominant under the current president.
This use of fear in the campaign is just a continuation of the fear used to sell the war, the fear used to continue the war, and the fear used to justify radical expansions of executive power. Fear is also the justification for an ominous change to a fundamental principle in our foreign policy: the shifting from a just war doctrine to one of preemptive war.
Fear transcends these candidates. It's one tool in the arsenal of the broader movement used to shape public opinion. Think of the calls to patriotism that silenced dissent in the run up to war. Think of the policies that went unchallenged because our president claimed a religious conviction for his actions. Even the call to spread values that many judge to be positive to the human environment, like democracy, have now brought public support for aggressive military actions to meet these ends throughout the globe.
Fear. Patriotism. Religious conviction. Democratic values. These four tools have been applied to the collective conscience so that we now accept the United States as an aggressor nation and willingly relinquish individual freedoms as demanded by our government.