Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The Politics of Fear

A common talking point today is that the former administration used the politics of fear - fear mongering - to promote their policies which kept our country safe for the past years after the attacks of 9/11/01. This, I think, points to a very basic divide in the thinking of a conservative and a liberal concerning national security.

A new star is rising within the Republican party. Her name is Liz Cheney and she is the daughter of former VP Cheney. She has been on the talk show circuit defending her father’s decision to give a policy speech in defense of the Bush Doctrine and their decisions made during their two terms in office. Did you see Liz Cheney debate CNN’s Anderson Cooper? It was brilliant. Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjNKaxd_Chg

What you will see is a calm, yet firm argument from Ms. Cheney that rebukes the false claims put forth by Cooper. She challenges his assumption that President Obama and Democrats are correct when they claim GITMO is a recruitment tool for terrorists. She points out that the attacks in the 1990’s against the U.S., whether the 1993 WTC bombing or the African embassy bombings or the attack on the USS Cole, even 9/11/01, were all carried out before GITMO was even on a drawing board. She was never rude and she didn’t revert to nasty name calling to beef up her argument. She’s a class act.

The liberal part of the Democratic party believe that the Bush administration scared the country silly in order to receive support on the war on terror. Why do they claim that? I think it is because, in fact, that the Democrats use fear - and constant crisis mode - in order to push through their agenda, usually domestic policy. Think back to the Clinton terms - everything was a crisis. Everything had to be pushed through in a hurry. The same can be said of today’s Obama administration. Legislation is not being properly debated in the halls of Congress. The Republicans are virtually shut out of a large part of the process. Everything is being rushed before a majority of Americans wake up out of their stupor and demand a slow down - a more thoughtful process for such large decisions.

I would argue that if you are not living with a bit of fear in today’s world, you have your head in the sand. We are a nation under attack. Evil people, both internationally and domestically, plot to destroy us. Homegrown terrorists are surfacing on a regular basis. And, in domestic policy, President Obama and his fellow Democrats are socializing our American life a bit more as each week passes. Not wanting to waste the fears of the American voters during this economic crisis, the Democrats argue that this is the time for the federal government to take over ownership of everything from the auto industry to our system of health care delivery.

Take the fear and work for effective change. Fear is a great motivator.


Cross Posted: www.motherofallconservatives.com

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What you see is Liz Cheney calmly lying in the face of Cooper's accurate facts. She's blatantly lying to the American public, apparently confident they are too foolish, lazy and ignorant to have read the independent reports (the Schlesinger report Cooper mentions as well as others reports) that establish the strong connection between the abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. She thinks Americans will believe anything she says if she says if she talks long, loud and aggressively.

You also see her committing a betrayal of the service people running Abu Ghraib who followed orders and adhered to Bush policy in their conduct with prisoners and are now being abandoned and scapegoated by this woman and her father.

You see her talking misleadingly about the CIA without a word about the independent contractors hired by the government to devise and administer torture (who it should be noted could not be prosecuted by military tribunal so they were some of the many people Liz was ignoring about when she falsely claimed everyone responsible for Abu Ghraib was held accountable).

Karen Townsend said...

Anon:
You'll understand if I fundamentally disagree with your character assassination of Liz Cheney.

srp said...

Anonymous... the only thing I see is another slobbering Obama supporter who cannot make a sentence without including the phrase... Obama inherited this from the previous administration. Oh yes... and a coward, for not publishing your name and standing behind your slander.