This morning's Guardian
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/... has a story by Paul Harris about the GOP's strategy for winning in November--despite miserable congressional and presidential poll numbers. The pitch will be: only we can protect you. The Republicans are going to try to win by appealing to the voters' reptile brains. But, just maybe, the electorate is tired of being scared and will get a life.
[S]enior Republican strategists, including political guru Karl Rove, have long favoured fighting the November mid-term elections on the issues of terrorism and the war. Polls consistently show that voters favour the Republicans on national security, even as the Iraq conflict appears to be collapsing into a civil war. It will also allow Republicans to deflect Democratic criticisms over the economy, growing poverty and scandals ranging from lobbyist corruption to the lax response to Hurricane Katrina.
"All human beings by nature desire to know," is the first line of Aristotle's Metaphysics. Aristotle has ordinary time in mind when people have enough resources and do not perceive themselves to be in physical danger. In ordinary times people are curious about the world around them, about other people, and about themselves. In ordinary times people create art, literature, and philosophy because they have time and energy for such things. In times of war or perceived threat the boundaries of human expression are closer in, and fear limits the full expression of our humanity. The focus shifts to survival rather than flourishing. Fear confines us to little things.
So the Republicans want to win by appealing to the electorate's lesser selves. Fear about basic wellbeing is a powerful motivator, and the GOP has chosen to go down this sinister path once again because it works. Yet as the behavioral psychologists tell us, the more times a behavioral trigger is flipped, the more likely it will be that the response will be extinguished. At some point the voters will get bored with fear mongering and get on with their lives.
There is a strong retort ready and waiting for Democrats with the courage to use it against the politics of fear: If you want a life worth living, vote Democratic. If you want to live like a gerbil, vote Republican.
Put in these terms, authoritarian submission to the GOP line emerges for what it is--weakness--and we get to appeal to the voters' better selves. The Democratic Party stands for full lives well lived. The GOP stands for fear, constraint, and compliance with authority. We are the party of freedom and self-realization. They are the party of safety and constraint.
Finally, the use of fear as a means of control can't stand up to ridicule. Think of what Luther said, "The devil, that proud spirit, cannot endure being mocked." Why? Because this mythopoetic character needs his mystique. Attack his fearsomeness, and he's just another second-tier metaphysical entity. Ridicule the fear mongers, and their power over us goes away. And it's fun.
So what are you more afraid of: a tube of toothpaste or Dick Cheney and his shotgun?