Two President's use of Fear

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 22:08:10 -0800
From: "Robert J. Berger" <rberger () ibd com>
Subject: Two President's use of Fear
To: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>, Dave Farber <dave () farber net>

Bush is a Fear President
    By Albert Scardino
    The Guardian UK
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1177007,00.html

     Wednesday 24 March 2004
 The U.S. president is determined to use national anxiety to his advantage

     Fear has had a cabinet position in two of the most radical presidencies
in American history, those of Franklin Roosevelt and the current Bush. Spain
has known similar fear at similar times, but the Spanish response has been a
mirror image of the American reaction.

      Roosevelt devoted his time in office to management of fear, from the
economic horror of the Depression, through the massacre of 3,000 soldiers
and sailors at Pearl Harbor, to the invasion at Normandy. Bush has chosen to
manage by fear, through a simpler war of his own making, against an enemy
that is little more than a gang of murderous thugs.

      While Americans embraced an elected leader in the 1930s who coped with
the threat of chaos by altering the size and scope of government, Spain
suffered a military revolt that imposed order and maintained it through fear
for two generations.

      Where the current US leader declared himself a war president in the
aftermath of a violent assault, Spaniards suffered their own assault from
the same enemy, then gathered silently to declare themselves in favour of
one word printed on millions of cards, "Peace".

      Roosevelt declared war on despair in the opening sentences of his
term. "We have nothing to fear but fear itself," he said at the start of his
inaugural address in 1933. Bush, in his state of the union address in
January, used a form of the word "terror" more than 20 times, exceeded in
frequency only by the word "I" (more than 30). Judging by his rhetoric so
far in this election year, he intends to make terror his by-word.

      Roosevelt's landslide victory in 1932 left him in charge of a wasted
country. When the stock market bubble of the 1920s popped, there was nothing
inside to keep the economy moving. With no regulatory infrastructure and no
social support system, millions of people lost their jobs, their homes and
their farms.

      The failure of many of the country's banks wiped out savings. The
demand for charity overwhelmed charities. Health care came from a doctor
willing to dispense for free, or it didn't come at all. Food came from soup
kitchens, shelter provided by a bridge or a cardboard box. Virtually all
Americans fell down a rung or two, but tens of millions fell off the ladder
all together.

      Roosevelt put America back to work, with the government as employer
when necessary. Civilian government workers built dams and post offices,
reforested eroded land, painted murals, photographed the dust storms and the
tent cities, paved roads and constructed schools, hospitals and courthouses,
all as part of public works programmes designed to restore self-esteem,
faith and hope - and to keep fear under control.

      Things might have turned out differently in the US with different
leadership. In Germany and Italy elected leaders pandered to the fear,
ignited Christian fervour, intimidated political expression. In Spain they
used it as the hood ornament for tanks that crushed an elected government,
then decorated the regime's standard with it for two generations.

      Like Roosevelt, Bush has mobilised the country with his radical
vision, in many ways the mirror image of Roosevelt's philosophy, in some
ways mimicking his tactics.

      He introduced a tax programme to redistribute wealth upwards, sought
to unwind social security programmes his predecessor had introduced and
worked hard to open public land for private development that Roosevelt had
set aside as national forests and public reserves.

      Roosevelt sought to pack the courts with judges who would alter the
relationship between government and those in power. Bush's packing involves
those who would limit the power of the individual in favour of those in
authority.

      Spain celebrated the end of fascism only 29 years ago. Most of those
old enough to vote remember living in a state of fear imposed by their
leaders. In the generation since Franco's death, they have learned to laugh
again. Their national wealth has soared. They have rejoined their European
neighbours with a commitment to civil liberties at home and full
participation in the international community.

      Had they reacted differently, the train bombs two weeks ago might have
ended their generation of freedom. They might have wallowed in the fear that
a pathetic band of murderers could somehow destroy their society. They might
have moaned about the worst attack on Spanish soil in modern history.

      That would not have been true. Many more died in many of the battles
of the Spanish civil war, just as many more Americans died in many of the
battles of the US civil war than were killed at the World Trade Centre on
September 11, 2001.

      They might have wallowed in the self-indulgence that this was an
attack on Spain unlike any other. That would have been more valid. Few of
the dead or injured aboard those trains came from other nations, unlike the
victims in New York.

      In one way at least, they, or at least the government, reacted the
same as the Bush government. They suffered from an instinctive reaction to
strike out at the wrong enemy. For Aznar, it was the Basque separatists. For
Bush, according to his former counter-terrorism tsar, it was Iraq.

      Roosevelt's address at his inauguration also referred to terror,
"nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyses needed efforts to
convert retreat into advance."

      To his fellow citizens on his first day in office he said: "We face
our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things."

 -------
Albert Scardino is an executive editor of the Guardian; John Scardino owns a
public relations firm and is a former congressional candidate.
--
Robert J. Berger - Internet Bandwidth Development, LLC.
Voice: 408-882-4755 eFax: +1-408-490-2868
http://www.ibd.com

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