Fearing Voters, American Lawmakers Fan Voter Fears

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http://www.watchingamerica.com/financialtimesdeutschland000018.shtml

Fearing Voters, American Lawmakers Fan Voter Fears

For both parties, the approaching Congressional elections are dominated by the fear of terror … and fear of the voters.

By Washington Correspondent Thomas Klau

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In less than six weeks America selects a new Congress, and once again fear marks the campaign strategies of both parties.

The administration feeds the fear of terrorism by comparing Osama bin Laden with Hitler and Stalin. The White House argues that only the President and his Republicans are tough enough for such a dangerous fight. It is implied that the fantasy of a new caliphate under bin Laden, a Saudi billionaire's son, is on an equal footing with the threats from powers like Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

The Democratic opposition counters by likewise inciting the fears of the citizenry, but by arguing that George W. Bush and his party have encouraged terrorism with the war in the Iraq, and have worsened American security. But while Republicans create a more favorable rhetorical and ideological dynamic for themselves by encouraging the fear of terror, Democrats see themselves more hindered than helped by doing so. That fear, along with the fear of losing the elections, explains the timidity of their resistance to the excesses of the administration in the anti-terror fight. The effect of the presidential election campaign of 2004 remains strong, when the Vietnam avoider George W. Bush portrayed Vietnam veteran John Kerry as a poor soldier.

BUSH THREATENED BY EXPOSURE

In addition to these openly displayed strategies of fear, the competitors have their own hidden fears. In the White House, the concern is that if the Republican majorities in the House or the Senate are lost, cabinet members and others would be held accountable under oath before Congressional committees for the Iraq war, a disaster for an administration whose failures in the planning and execution of the war would be relentlessly exposed.

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