[Mb-civic] Using Our Fear - Eugene Robinson - Washington Post Op-Ed

[William Swiggard]

Using Our Fear

By Eugene Robinson
Friday, January 27, 2006; A23

Once upon a time we had a great wartime president who told Americans 
they had nothing to fear but fear itself. Now we have George W. Bush, 
who uses fear as a tool of executive power and as a political weapon 
against his opponents.

Franklin D. Roosevelt tried his best to allay his nation's fears in the 
midst of an epic struggle against fascism. Bush, as he leads the country 
in a war whose nature he is constantly redefining, keeps fear alive 
because it has been so useful. His political grand vizier, Karl Rove, 
was perfectly transparent the other day when he emerged from wherever 
he's been hiding the past few months -- consulting omens, reading 
entrails -- and gave the Republican National Committee its positioning 
statement for the fall elections: Vote for us or die.

Democrats "have a pre-9/11 worldview" of national security that is 
"deeply and profoundly and consistently wrong," Rove said. The clear 
subtext was that Americans would court mortal danger by electing 
Democrats. Go forth and scare the bejesus out of them, Rove was telling 
his party, because the more frightened they are, the better our chances.

To cultivate fear for partisan gain is never a political tactic to be 
proud of, but Rove's prescription of naked fearmongering is just plain 
reprehensible when the nation faces a shifting array of genuine, serious 
threats. This is a moment for ethical politicians -- and, yes, these 
days that seems like an oxymoron -- to speak honestly about what dangers 
have receded, what new dangers have emerged, and how the imperatives of 
liberty and security can be balanced.

 From the likes of Rove, I guess, we shouldn't expect anything more 
noble than win-at-all-costs. But we do have the right to expect more 
from the president of the United States, and while Bush gives off none 
of Rove's Sith-lord menace, he has made the cultivation of fear a 
hallmark of his governance.

At his news conference yesterday, Bush was asked again about the 
domestic surveillance he has ordered the National Security Agency to 
conduct without seeking warrants -- a program that seems to violate the 
law. In his meandering answer, the president kept throwing in the phrase 
"to protect the American people." I suspect that's a line that tests 
well in focus groups, but it doesn't really say anything. The fact that 
we expect any president to protect us does not obviate the fact that we 
expect any president to obey the law.

Bush mentioned the new tape from Osama bin Laden that surfaced the other 
day, calling it a reminder that we face "an enemy that wants to hit us 
again." That's certainly true, but the warning would carry more gravitas 
if Bush and his administration didn't brag so much about how thoroughly 
al Qaeda has been routed and decimated. Is anybody keeping track of how 
many "No. 3" or "No. 4" al Qaeda lieutenants U.S. forces claim to have 
eliminated?

And Americans would be better able to measure the threat from bin Laden 
if Bush and the rest of his administration didn't argue -- when it gives 
them an edge -- that Iraq is the "central front in the war on 
terrorism." If Iraq is the main event, then bin Laden, huddled in some 
cave in northern Pakistan, must be just a sideshow, right? But of course 
he's not a sideshow, he's the author of the Sept. 11 attacks, so what 
does that make Iraq? The answer seems to depend on whether, at any given 
time, Bush believes that cultivating fear of bin Laden or stoking fear 
of a terrorist spawning ground in Iraq would better help his 
administration achieve its ends.

The thing is, fear works. The administration successfully invoked the 
fear of "mushroom clouds" to win support, or at least acquiescence, for 
the invasion of Iraq. By the time it was clear there were no weapons of 
mass destruction, the fear of losing to terrorists on the "central 
front" had been given primacy. We stopped hearing the name bin Laden so 
often -- no need to bring attention to the fact that he remained at 
large -- until reports emerged of secret CIA prisons, torture and 
domestic spying.

Bin Laden does remain a threat. He would hit the United States again if 
he could. We do expect the president to protect us. But a great wartime 
leader rallies his citizens by informing them and inspiring them. He 
certainly doesn't use threats to our national security for political 
gain. He doesn't just point at a map and say "Boo."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/26/AR2006012601478.html
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.islandlists.com/pipermail/mb-civic/attachments/20060127/7b298eff/attachment-0001.htm