Democrats, Republicans ramp up 2024 election fearmongering
With Florida’s irrelevant presidential primary now in the rear-view mirror, our thoughts can turn to a presidential campaign in which the focus on generating fear stirs thoughts of … Halloween!
Granted, Halloween in America is typically a fun-filled fall celebration that’s primarily for kids and is based on creating fake fear of goblins, ghosts and other things that might go bump in the night.
This year, however, if you believe the over-thetop claims of the rival presidential campaigns, Oct. 31 may be a prelude to a protracted period of genuine fear that’ll begin on the Nov. 5 Election Day, if not sooner.
ELECTION CLAIMS
If this election is anywhere near as close and inconclusive as early polling suggests, expect an immediate crossfire of claims and counterclaims to occur between Nov. 5 and the Dec. 17 casting of Electoral College votes — maybe even afterward, if the losing camp insists on contesting the outcome.
The Democrats’ campaign to re-elect President Joe Biden has already warned that a Donald Trump victory would be “a threat to our democracy.”
Their narrative is bolstered by Trump’s own rhetoric on the campaign trail.
In one speech, for instance, Trump mused about being “dictator for a day.” Equally worrisome are his repeated claims of presidential immunity no matter what he does while in the White House.
‘BLOODBATH’ COMMENT
Trump has also vowed vengeance against those he believes have been persecuting him, and he’s promised to pardon those convicted of using violence on Jan. 6 in an attempt to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.
Even Trump’s injudicious use of the word “bloodbath” — in reference to the domestic auto industry’s potential woes if imports were to pour in from a Chinese factory in Mexico — was taken out of context and used against him as he continues to provide the Democrats with ammo.
Meanwhile, Trump’s own campaign is stoking fears of what could happen if Biden wins another term. One fear — shared by some Democrats — is that Biden’s cognitive decline or death could result in Kamala Harris’ becoming president at a time when our nation is facing worrisome threats at home and abroad.
CHINA, NORTH KOREA
Trump and his MAGA followers are also pounding Biden on an array of policy issues, foreign and domestic. These range from the growing military power of China and North Korea to inflation.
Even so, exploiting fears of uncontrolled immigration remains the key issue for Trump, who’s been at his most persuasive when blasting the Biden administration’s handling of security along our border with Mexico.
The unprecedented influx there has included gang members, potential terrorists, human traffickers, and an assortment of lethal drugs, including fentanyl, though reporting indicates that’s more of a problem at legal crossings and by U.S. citizens.
With regard to fentanyl, the situation seems unlikely to improve anytime soon, given the March 22 new conference where Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador argued that drugs are a U.S. problem, not a Mexican one.
A US PROBLEM?
Meanwhile, as if lethal drugs from Mexico needed any added prominence as a campaign issue during the week prior to Election Day, don’t be shocked if Halloween 2024 is marred by reports that a kid somewhere in America died while innocently trick-ortreating and inadvertently ingesting a “treat” laced with fentanyl.
If so, it’ll be a sad reminder that Mexico’s president wasn’t entirely incorrect when he declared that the flow of drugs is a U.S. problem, not a Mexican one. That’s because, when it comes to addictive substances, supplies will always try to meet demand.
Robert F. Sanchez, of Tallahassee, is a former member of the Miami Herald Editorial Board. He writes for the Herald’s conservative opinion newsletter, Right to the Point.
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