The Politics of Fear

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Stephen Moore Why is the Left Always Afraid?

I think H L Mencken answered his question before any of us was born.

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

As an example, climate change and rising seas will require some costly engineering, but contrary to hyperventilating celebrities, it is not an existential threat. In many ways, the good will balance the bad. But the left is utterly dependent on terrorizing children into believing they have no future to advance its agenda.

It is not enough for the left to disagree with Trump and his supporters, or to call them out on a stupid ploy to delay the certification of the election in hopes the courts would allow them to flip some states, they have to be fascists intent on destroying “democracy” even though many of them are patriots who have or would fight to defend the country.

Everything has to be a hobgoblin coming to eat us in our beds. Nothing can be a problem we can solve working together. Everything has to be the end of the world.

Unless, of course, we give them extraconstitutional power to take control of everything.

Published by Don Tabor

I am a former Chairman of the Tidewater Libertarian Party and was the 2007 LP candidate for the 14th district VA Senate. Previously, I was the Volunteer State Director for the FairTax. I am married 50 years with two grown children and 5 grandchildren.

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41 thoughts on “The Politics of Fear”

  1. Thank you for the excellent comment. Hobgoblins indeed. They are best ignored. We are losing our ability as a country to ignore them. Eventually they will devour us.

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  2. Wow! Projection of the first order.

    Fear of Mexican rapists, CRT, BLM, gun control, “grooming” teachers, “porn” in both school and public libraries, transgenders, Muslims, “shithole” countries, death panels, non-existent infanticide, vaccines, masks, Italian satellites…

    Those are the politics of fear, Don. Fear to the extent of threats of violence. Demagoguery and populism go hand in hand for the modern excuse for the Republican Party, Trump division.

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          2. What threats are you referring to?

            Angry words at a meeting when the parent is told he cannot speak for more than a minute doesn’t count. Credible threats must include the capability to act on the threat.

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          5. I copied my post from another topic.

            https://baptistnews.com/article/whos-behind-the-nationwide-attacks-on-local-school-boards-over-critical-race-theory/

            “School boards in Nevada and Arizona have moved to virtual meetings not because of COVID this time but because of security concerns. “They’ve added extra security guards and metal detectors in school board meetings that have never had those before. It’s really frightening some of the people.”

            https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/01/politics/school-board-meetings-harassment/index.html

            “Calls, emails, personal threats and abuse over whatever issue it is – and it’s not just the school board members. It’s been the superintendents. I can tell you that I am seeing a significant departure of superintendents from their jobs because they have been threatened. Their families have been threatened. The children, if they have been in the schools, are being threatened.”

            There is more to the coincidence of anti-CRT threats than just an occasional lively meeting. Proud Boys are showing up, sitting in the front row with bandanas and regalia.

            View at Medium.com

            The widespread nature of the threats against board members, superintendents, teachers, administrators merits a national investigation. This is not ALEC, where right wingers write the actual legislation and get Republicans to back it. What is happening at the local levels are threats of violence and intimidation. Yet, the issues are nationwide. I think we need to address this nationally, and that would be a matter of Homeland Security or the FBI. Both are charged with policing domestic terror issues. And threatening people is terrorism

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          6. So?

            Two cites explaining the very good reasons parents are furious.

            None on any acts of violence.

            The Proud Boys are always interested in a little publicity and recruiting but they are following, not leading.

            School boards have gone out of their way to piss off parents, overruling them on the basic decisions of parenthood,

            Considering the provocations, parents have been remarkably restrained.

            NPR Sex ed as early as kindergarten

            And note that it isn’t just Sex Ed, it’s CRT too.

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          8. Pulling kids out. picketing the schools.

            The arrogance of the school boards is infuriating. In VA Beach, which has staggered elections, three members have been replaced by parent supported candidates. Those members are frozen out by the majority with no committee assignments.

            For too many years, few people other than teachers voted in school board elections, but no more.

            Still, the older members are fighting the parents. Every step of the way.

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          9. “Pulling kids out. picketing the schools.”

            Now you are making sense. Threats of violence is wrong. Period.

            “Understandable” or not. Period.

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      2. “Do you see conservatives obsessing over those things?”
        Uh, do you see “conservatives” talking about anything else?

        “They are problems we can manage”
        Here is the thing, none of those things cited by Len is actually a problem at all. And yet they are virtually the only things that MAGA-Republicans like you talk about.

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        1. If I don’t want my grandchildren exposed to sexual material before they are old enough to process it, what is wrong with speaking at a school board meeting to that effect and raising money for new board members more to my liking?

          And don’t confuse anger with fear.

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          1. Thanks for confirming my point. There is not a school ANYWHERE which has a policy of exposing children to sexual material that is not age appropriate. So you are angry about something that does not exist. Typical MAGA-Republican.

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          3. “Gender Queer was removed from middle school libraries in VA Beach.”

            Yeah, reality is sooooo offensive. This happens to be a nationally recognized piece of literature for readers 12 and up. So, of course, ban it. Better yet – burn it.

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          5. “They are the sole judges of what is appropriate for their child.”
            They are not the sole judges of what is appropriate for MY child.

            The correct approach is not banning books as VB has done but flagging library books for parental approval.

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          6. I don’t disagree.

            However, banning an adult level book in a elementary school library is a pretty good presumption of what the great majority of parents would find appropriate, and a parent that wants their 9 year old reading adult level books can always go to the public library and check it out for their child.

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      3. “… state lawmakers agreed to ban any state agencies from making policies on sea-level change until 2016,”

        https://www.fayobserver.com/story/news/2018/09/13/nc-legislators-banned-study-on-sea-level-rise-could-it-mean-more-florence-destruction/10568283007/

        Ironically, they were afraid of impacting coastal development and resulting flood insurance increases. Just what you have railed against using taxpayers to subsidize coastal development.

        But fear was the deciding factor.

        Flood mitigation through major engineering projects are sensible and doable. But you have to accept reality first.

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        1. I don’t know why you think that is relevant. but I have written many times that we should prepare for 3 feet of sea level rise over 100 years.

          That means protecting some property and abandoning others.

          That’s just prudent.

          Trying to abandon fossil fuels before there is an alternative IN PLACE because you have been convinced to think that the world will end is fear.

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    2. I think you seemed to not the difference between fear of and opposition to. We certainly have a right to oppose illegal aliens flooding the border, phony CRT, woke BLM as opposed to ALM, gun control, grooming children, porn in schools, boys using girls bathrooms and showers and terrorists. Why do you embrace racism, terrorism and porn in schools?

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  3. The complicity of MSM in creating and alarming us of this hobgoblin is quite alarming as well. When I open my phone browser, Google News is full of phony Tik Toker (Rolling eyes), anti-Trump or anti-GOP stories every day. I turned off TV news long ago for the same annoyance. I really got tired of the obvious bias and how every story was based on speculation and senstionalization of something might, could, maybe, possibly happen or be true or false. News and it’s delivery is a joke just like the left wing’s alarmist proclamations of the boogeyman gonna get us “If”.

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    1. You might try other sources other than TikTok. Apple News is an aggregator that cover media outlets from across the spectrum. Pick your poison, and if you don’t like it, find another. It’s free for a trial period.

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      1. ?? I don’t do TikTok or any other one “news” source. I think we have been down this road before where I told you I rely on official agencies and research for my opinions. News, no matter the source, is merely for entertainment if I can stand it and I will NOT pay for it.

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    2. There are consequences to acting in fear on climate.

      Green agriculture cannot support much more than half the current population.

      So, which 2 billion people do we kill so that sea level rises only 2.7 feet instead of 3?

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  4. From the source: “But again, why the reign of fear? One obvious explanation is that when planetary crises arrive, as with a pandemic, it is said to require more centralized government and more control over people’s lives. So, if you believe in the virtues of big government, you need supersized problems to justify its vast expansion.”

    The motive is obvious enough. The means and the opportunity, too. It remains to identify the criminal(s).

    Edward Bernays told us, as did the Church Committee, and Noam Chomsky. Edward Snowden told us. We don’t believe it.

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      1. They are dancing and cheering because their fears are being fed and it makes them happy to know that they were right about “them” all along.

        I will point to the follow on events after TFG left on Jan 6th. They were VERY happy to be attacking the seat of democracy based on lies that have been debunked more times than can be counted. Or they were happy to trespass. With all of their new found, like minded friends.

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      2. “Look at a Trump rally. People are happy, dancing around, making friends.”

        Ever seen photos of the festive, happy atmosphere at a lynching? Your home state was among the last to stop them so you probably have.

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