Fear-mongering is a presidential tradition James Bovard
President Trump is being reviled for exaggerating the peril of Muslim refugees. Some commentators fret that his rhetoric signals a new fascist era in America. But presidential fear-mongering has a long and sordid history. We cannot understand the threat that Trump poses without recognizing how prior presidents used similar ploys.
President Obama sometimes greatly exaggerated threats to push his legislative agenda. In a speech last year at the funeral of slain Dallas police officers, he asserted, “We 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.”
Washington Post fact-checkers contacted the White House, but none of the information it provided “directly made a connection between the ability of teens to buy handguns and their access to books or computers. ... There’s no minimum age or a background check required to get a book or use the computer for free at a public library.”
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. Thousands were slain by Obama-authorized drone attacks, including some Americans.
His 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 people’s iPhones.
Folks wringing their hands over Trump’s rhetoric have forgotten the psychological cheap shots that pervaded the 2004 presidential race. A Bush re-election television ad showed a pack of wolves coming to attack homes as an announcer warns that “weakness attracts those who are waiting to do America harm.”
That campaign was mellow compared with the 1964 Lyndon Johnson presidential campaign ad. It showed a girl picking petals off a daisy before the screen was taken over by a nuclear explosion. The ad implied that a victory by Republican nominee Barry Goldwater would annihilate humanity.
Rather than a novelty, fearmongering has practically been the job description for presidents. H.L. Mencken wrote, “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed.” Mencken was inspired by President Woodrow Wilson, whose administration whipped up public fury during World War I against beer, sauerkraut and teaching German in schools.
History teaches us that presidents are most dangerous when they seek to frighten us into submission. In that sense, Trump is nothing new. His @realDonaldTrump Twitter account is just a new delivery system for the same old fear that @realWoodrowWilson or @realGeorgeWBush used to advance their own agendas.