You don’t need to go very far to see fear being used in politics.
What is really frightening is that the best fear-mongers are the ones who wield fear as a weapon without the public ever even noticing.
First of all, why do politicians and politicos use fear to manipulate the public?
Because it works.
You can read about fear as the weapon of choice for political leaders all the way back to Machiavelli, and it is just as effective today as it was centuries ago.
When people fear something, they are more likely to latch hold of something – or someone – who promises to protect them.
Fear is how xenophobia and protectionism can win a presidential election.
The truly scary thing is that fear-mongering has become so institutionalize that the public often doesn’t even realize it’s happening.
Think of the Liberal Party of Canada’s campaign from 2015; it was considered a feel-good, uplifting campaign, and yet what was their common refrain?
“We can’t afford four more years of Harper.”
The entire campaign was based on stoking fear into Canadians around what might happen under the leadership of the opposing party!
The Liberals were not the only ones to use fear; the Conservative Party of Canada has been stoking fear around issues like gun control for decades.
And consider the Democratic Primaries in the United States; what is the common thread through all Democratic platforms?
“Get rid of Trump.”
Nearly every Democratic nominee in the field is running a fear-based campaign around what happens if Trump wins the general election.
The point here is not that politicians are all fear-mongering haters who shouldn’t be trusted; on the contrary, many people who get into politics do so because they want to contribute to a better world.
The point that I am trying to make is that fear is so deeply embedded in political theory that it is impossible to engage in political rhetoric without acknowledging the undertones of fear-mongering.
The good news is that the first step to fixing this fear-based politicking is acknowledging we have a problem – and calling it out when we see it.
In my next post, I will share some thoughts about valuing opposing perspectives.
Would you say that Incumbent Politicians use fear-based tactics more often than the Opposition ones or are it about the same?
Great question, Luke! I know most of my examples were of opposition tactics, but I think we see them on both sides. Opposition tends to capitalize on fear of existing prejudices, while incumbents tend to promote fear of the unknown (like the Liberal Party of Canada’s attack on both Stephen Harper’s and Andrew Scheer’s supposed “hidden social agenda”).
But that is a generalized statement. Sometimes you will see incumbents using existing prejudices or the opposition using fear of the unknown as well. Fear is so foundational to so much of our political rhetoric that it seeps into sometimes even the most benign statements.