Bush: "Nothing to Sell but Fear Itself" or How The Age of Exuberance has become the Age of Fear...and who to blame for the Darkening of the Light
Fear is being used as re-election tactic
BY SHELDON S. WOLIN
Sheldon S. Wolin is emeritus professor of politics at Princeton University and the author of "Politics and Vision: The Presence of the Past" and "Alexis de Tocqueville: Between Two Worlds."
With a defiant "We are not afraid" stance, President George W. Bush has dismissed the natural response to terrorism while tacitly making fear the basis of his politics.
Fear is politically useful because it simultaneously divides and unites. It breeds suspicions among neighbors as well as a common yearning for security.
Using the battle cry of a "war on terrorism" and stubbornly insisting that Saddam Hussein possessed "weapons of mass destruction," the Bush administration is not about to surrender the tactical advantages of an anxious public being told repeatedly that it is trapped in a war with no end-point.
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