The Politics of Fear
I originally wrote this post on October 12, 2008. It’s been stuck in the draft bin since then. Time to clear it out! Just bear in mind that some of this will be old news, obviously!
Fifty-nine percent of Americans would vote to replace the entire Congress if they could, according to a Rasmussen poll. Only 17% of them would vote to keep them. Thirty-three percent of Americans believe that individuals picked at random could do a better job than those currently serving in Congress.
With so many people dissatisfied with the performance of Congress, you’d think it’d be easy to get rid of them all and start with all new people.
But, that will never happen. Why? It’s because of the “Not My Guy!” syndrome.
People will vote their representative back in again and again, because it’s all the other representatives that are the problem. Think Harry Reid is an utter moron? You can’t do anything about it if you don’t live in Nevada. Think Mitch McConnell is the idiot that needs to go? You can’t do anything about that if you don’t live in Kentucky. Their local constituents thought they were the best choice (and who knows what idiots they might have voted against that could possibly have been worse–think about that for a moment: the guy you think is an idiot might have been the better of two candidates!) and voted them in. And, they may do it again and again, no matter how badly they want to replace Congress because, probably, they think that their guy isn’t the problem. It’s all those other ones there that need to go!
Maybe you didn’t vote for your representative. Maybe you voted for his or her opponent. Maybe you’re sitting there, smugly thinking to yourself that you’re not the problem. Really, your guy isn’t the problem. If he had won the election, we’d all see how much better he (or she) would have been.
But, then you’re probably suffering from “Not My Guy” syndrome too. In this case, you’re suffering a variant of it called “Not My Party” syndrome, which is essentially the same thing. You think your political party can do no wrong. It’s the other party that’s the problem.
Which Presidential candidate is running a nasty campaign? Look around. Read different blogs. If you’re an Obama supporter, you probably think McCain is running a dirty campaign. If you’re a McCain supporter, you probably think Obama is running a dirty campaign. But, both are running using the politics of fear; chiefly, the fear of what will happen if the other guy wins.
“The best government is that which governs least.” You might think that is a quote from Henry David Thoreau, but it was the motto of The United States Magazine and Democratic Review, a magazine that, in part, was launched to support the ideals of Andrew Jackson. Thoreau’s paraphrasing was “That government is best which governs least.”
Jacksonian Democrats believed in free markets. “Jackson believed that when the government took a stronger role in the economy, it made it easier for favored groups to win special privileges, which was anathema to a nation run by, and for, the common man.” Jeffersonian Democrats believed that Republicanism (representative democracy) was the best form of government, in that it avoided a tyranny of the majority.
Both Jackson and Jefferson would no doubt be disappointed in the modern-day Democratic Party. But, do you think Abraham Lincoln would feel any differently about the modern-day Republican Party?
Neither of today’s political parties are quite the same as they were when they first began. In fact, they are so different that their founders would probably not recognize them. They would probably even distance themselves from them!
I hate to say it but politics does nothing for me lately… Everyone is so riled up lately. I kind of thought that once Bush was out of office people would mellow out- after all they attacked him incessantly. Now it’s more of the same with Obama and his health care and whatever else he is selling.
Now see what you did… I posted on Marilyn Monroe and you had to go on about aliens… now all my ads are for alien abduction!!! You tainted my blog again with your creepy ways.