GOP candidates campaign on fear
To hear the Republican presidential candidates tell it, Americans should duck and cover as in a Cold War drill. The sooner, the better, too, because the world is dangerous.
To hear the Republican presidential candidates tell it, Americans should duck and cover as in a Cold War drill.
The sooner, the better, too, because the world is dangerous.
Fear has been a main narrative thread in the GOP campaign the last two months, after terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., moved national security to the top of the list of concerns of the party's primary voters.
This was on vivid display in Thursday's prime-time debate, as GOP candidates cataloged a range of potential threats, from nuclear-armed terrorists to mass gun confiscation by the federal government, to Syrian refugees, and even the apocalypse itself.
They accused President Obama of a lack of a resolve and of downplaying the danger of the Islamic State terrorist group. They also said he had allowed U.S. military strength to deteriorate and erred in reaching an agreement that will give Iran access to nuclear power.
Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson raised the specter of a terrorist attack on the nation's electric grid.
"I mean, just think about a scenario like that," Carson said. "They explode the bomb; we have an electromagnetic pulse. They hit us with a cyberattack simultaneously and dirty bombs. Can you imagine the chaos that would ensue at that point?"
This emphasis comes even though the most deadly terrorist attack in U.S. history occurred under a Republican president, on 9/11, and it was Obama who ordered special forces to kill Osama bin Laden.
Part of the intensity stems from the GOP's two straight losses in presidential elections and the desire to win back the White House by motivating partisans, said political scientist Lara M. Brown, director of the graduate school of political management at George Washington University.
"We know enough about human beings and evolutionary psychology to know that most effective political communications to motivate people are fear-based rather than hope-based," Brown said. "If people are presented side-by-side pictures of an apple and a snake, they'll look at the snake. We're programmed to focus first on threats rather than what's beautiful or benign."
And to be sure, the United States has plenty of adversaries who may wish to cause harm. In addition to radical Islamic terrorists, there are Russia, North Korea, and China.
The Republican tough talk has not been limited to debates.
Gov. Christie, for instance, features in his standard campaign speech a plea to deal with the world "not as we wish it was," but as it is - "a dark and dangerous place right now, in every corner that we look."
Christie began airing a TV ad last week in which he plays the stern, protective father role. He touts his experience as U.S. attorney prosecuting terror cases and labels former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, as an architect of the Obama foreign policy. In the background, a building is aflame, and then there is a quick shot of masked guerrilla fighters holding AK-47s.
Speaking into the camera, Christie says that he'll tell adversaries "there are limits" and that he will protect Americans. There are shots of protesters burning U.S. flags in a Middle Eastern setting and of a ballistic missile launching.
During Thursday's debate, front-runner Donald Trump maintained his position that Obama's plan to take in 10,000 refugees fleeing violence in Syria was sure to let some terrorists into the nation.
"That could be the great Trojan horse," Trump said. "It could be people that are going to do great, great destruction." He described looking at television footage of the refugees fleeing Syria. "Where are the women? It looked like very few women, very few children. Strong, powerful men."
Several of the GOP candidates have called for a pause in admitting Syrian refugees, saying there are questions about the system of vetting them.
Trump dismissed criticism that he was appealing to voters' prejudices with his proposal for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country.
"Look, we have to stop with political correctness," he said. "We have to get down to creating a country that's not going to have the kind of problems that we've had with people flying planes into the World Trade Center, with the - with the shootings in California, with all the problems all over the world."
To one degree or another, the candidates argue that Obama himself is a threat in the White House.
"I am convinced that if this president could confiscate every gun in America, he would," Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said during the debate.
He accused the president of "undermining the constitutional basis of this government" by issuing executive orders to bypass Congress, as he did earlier this month on gun regulations.
In stoking national-security fears, Republicans are meeting their primary voters where they are.
Among Republicans in a mid-December Monmouth University poll, 57 percent said national security was a top issue, and 41 percent named jobs and the economy. The survey showed 46 percent of Democrats ranked jobs and the economy as their two most important issues, followed by 36 percent who considered national security/terrorism their top concern.
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