USA TODAY International Edition
Political fear- mongering won’t make America safer
With a string of speakers calling for Hillary Clinton’s incarceration, attacking her role in the Benghazi tragedy, stoking concerns about terrorism and illegal immigration, and playing up the recent shootings of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, the Republican convention opened with a strident tone designed to strike fear in the hearts of voters about the prospect of a Clinton presidency.
Some fear might be in order, but by daylight on Tuesday it had less to do with Clinton than with Donald Trump’s ability to run his own presidential campaign, as evidenced most recently by Melania Trump’s speech with lines lifted from Michelle Obama. The episode raised the obvious question of how Trump is going to make America safe again if he can’t even assemble a staff that can avoid simple mistakes or be candid about them when they occur.
Apart from the unforced errors, perhaps there is a decent political advantage to be had on crime and terrorism. Trump’s description of himself as a law- and-order candidate plays to the horror that Americans feel over the recent murders of police. And anything that Republicans can do to remind Americans of the rising tide of terrorism can only pay political dividends.
Trump and his supporters, however, are heavy on scare talk and light on alternative policy prescriptions. A swagger- filled call for law and order — particularly one that appeals to racial divisions — is not the answer. If anything, it is time to tone down the harsh rhetoric so prevalent in American politics today, which only provides fuel for hate- filled people considering acts of mass violence.
It’s also time for a better approach on national security. International terrorism is an area where Republicans actually have a fairly strong hand to play. The rise of the Islamic State terrorist group occurred on the watch of President Obama, with Hillary Clinton serving as secretary of State during his first term. Obama was caught off- guard by ISIL’s rapid acquisition of territory in Iraq after U. S. forces withdrew. And he pursued a largely handsoff approach toward the civil war in Syria, which has allowed ISIL to gain a foothold there and which has spewed instability into Europe.
If Trump has a plausible policy for dealing with this threat and reversing ISIL’s gains, beyond vague bluster, the American people would be receptive to it. If he doesn’t, he’s not going to gain much ground by trying to turn the 2012 tragedy in Benghazi, Libya, into a major political scandal.
The simple fact is that for all the high- profile acts of violence both here and abroad, these are already fairly safe times to be an American. The rate for murder and non- negligent manslaughter fell by half from 1994 to 2014. Radical Islamist terrorism represents a menace to civilized society, but the chances of being killed in a domestic terrorist attack remain minuscule.
Americans are right to fear some things. One of them is fearmongering itself.