{"id":10098,"date":"2017-02-14T21:10:02","date_gmt":"2017-02-15T02:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=10098"},"modified":"2017-02-14T21:12:02","modified_gmt":"2017-02-15T02:12:02","slug":"counterpunch-trumps-fearmongering-is-tawdry-presidential-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/14\/counterpunch-trumps-fearmongering-is-tawdry-presidential-tradition\/","title":{"rendered":"Counterpunch: Trump’s Fearmongering is Tawdry Presidential Tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Counterpunch, February 13, 2017<\/a><\/h2>\n

Trump\u2019s Fearmongering is a Tawdry Presidential Tradition<\/a><\/h1>\n

by<\/span> James Bovard<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

President Donald Trump is being reviled for wildly exaggerating the peril of Muslim refugees. Some commentators fret that his rhetoric signals a new fascist era descending on America. A recent Washington Post news analysis derided Trump\u2019s fearmongering: \u201cPlaying upon the nation\u2019s anxieties about what might happen also stands as a stark contrast to how presidents have lifted the country out of actual crisis in the past.\u201d But presidential fearmongering has a long and sordid history.<\/p>\n

We cannot understand the perils that Trump poses without recognizing how prior presidents used similar ploys. Unfortunately, much of the media is dismally failing at this task.\u00a0 Many Washington reporters and pundits write as if they were not born until January 20, 2017<\/strong>. For instance, that Washington Post article hailed George W. Bush as one of the presidents \u201cwho seemed to grow into the job as they summoned the nation to defy what it feared rather than succumb to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Bush relied on shameless fearmongering to pull the nation into a war against Iraq that continues to destabilize much of the Middle East. Administration officials knowingly exaggerated the perils from Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction, climaxing with Vice President Dick Cheney\u2019s ludicrous assertion that Saddam Hussein possessed reconstituted nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

There are ample reasons to be wary of Trump nominees such as Jeff Sessions, with his unbridled lust for asset forfeiture and the drug war. But nothing that Trump\u2019s team has yet said or suggested compares to Attorney General John Ashcroft\u2019s declaration to a Senate committee in December 2001: \u201cTo those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty\u2026 your tactics only aid terrorists for they erode our national unity and\u2026 give ammunition to America\u2019s enemies.\u201d The newly-created Department of Homeland Security subsequently urged local police departments to view critics of the war on terrorism as potential terrorists, urging them to keep an eye on anyone who \u201cexpressed dislike of attitudes and decisions of the U.S. government.\u201d\u00a0 The Bush administration often showed contempt for protestors and critics alike while unleashing the National Security Agency to illicitly destroy Americans\u2019 privacy.<\/p>\n

Many folks now wringing their hands over Trump\u2019s rhetoric have forgotten the low-ball 2004 presidential race. A Bush re-reelection television ad showed a pack of wolves coming to attack home viewers as an announcer warns that \u201cweakness attracts those who are waiting to do America harm.\u201d Moises Naim, editor of Foreign Policy, observed that the Bush 2004 campaign was \u201cusing the fear factor almost exclusively\u2026 It\u2019s nothing but a reflection that it works.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the 2004 campaign was downright mellow compared to the 1964 Lyndon Johnson presidential campaign TV ad which showed a young girl \u201cpicking the petals off a daisy before the screen was overwhelmed by a nuclear explosion and then a mushroom cloud and Mr. Johnson declared, \u2018These are the stakes.\u2019\u201d The ad implied that a victory by Republican nominee Barry Goldwater would annihilate humanity. LBJ was running as the Peace Candidate \u2013 which was ironic, considering how he subsequently plunged the nation far more deeply into the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n

That Post article praised President Barack Obama for avoiding some of the inflammatory phrases used by Trump.\u00a0 But Obama often greatly exaggerated threats to push his pet causes. In a speech last year at the funeral of slain Dallas police officers, he asserted, \u201cWe flood communities with so many guns that it is easier for a teenager to buy a Glock than get his hands on a computer or even a book.\u201d\u00a0 But Amazon doesn\u2019t deliver Glocks to your doorstep. Washington Post fact checkers noted that \u201cthere\u2019s no minimum age or a background check required to get a book or use the computer for free at a public library\u201d and awarded the president Three Pinocchios.<\/p>\n

Obama also frequently invoked the threat from terrorism, using it to create a new prerogative for presidents to serve as judge, jury, and executioner for suspected bad guys. More than a thousand people were slain by Obama-authorized drone attacks, including some Americans and far too many innocent civilians. By the end of his presidency, the Nobel Peace Prize winner was bombing seven foreign nations.\u00a0 The Obama administration exploited the fear from one blundering would-be underwear bomber to entitle Transportation Security Administration agents to pointlessly grope millions of travelers. More recently, the Obama team warned of horrific consequences unless the feds were permitted to hack into everyone\u2019s iPhone.<\/p>\n

Rather than an odious novelty, fearmongering has practically been the job description for presidents. H. L. Mencken observed a century ago: \u201cThe whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed and hence, clamorous to be led to safety\u2014by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.\u201d Mencken\u2019s quip was inspired by President Woodrow Wilson, whose administration whipped up public fury during World War One against beer, sauerkraut, and teaching German in schools.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s opponents should beware of presuming that prior presidents as a mythical combination of George Washington and Jesus.\u00a0 But presidents are most dangerous when they seek to frighten us into submission.\u00a0 Citizens cannot cower on presidential cue without forfeiting any possibility of keeping rulers on a leash. History proves that bogus fears can produce real servitude<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

An earlier version of this column ran in USA Today<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n