I remember that. It was shown on tv just once on a station in WV I believe. Was picked up by the media and went viral.
On Wed, Jun 29, 2011 at 9:55 AM, plainolamerican <[email protected]>wrote: > johnson's "Daisy" ad > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63h_v6uf0Ao > > On Jun 28, 7:56 am, MJ <[email protected]> wrote: > > Fear-Mongering and ServitudeJames Bovard > > July/August 2011 • Volume: 61 • Issue: 6 • > > In his 1776 essay, “Thoughts on Government,” John Adams observed, “Fear > is the foundation of most governments; but it is so sordid and brutal a > passion, and renders men in whose breasts it predominates so stupid and > miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of any political > institution which is founded on it.” The Founding Fathers hoped the American > people would possess the virtues and strength to perpetuate liberty. > Unfortunately politicians over the past century have used trick after trick > to send Americans scurrying to politicians to protect them. > > President Woodrow Wilson pulled America into World War I based on bogus > idealism and real fear-mongering. Evocations of fighting for universal > freedom were quickly followed by bans on sauerkraut, beer, and teaching > German in government schools. H. L. Mencken observed in 1918: “The whole aim > of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed and hence, clamorous > to be led to safetyby menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all > of them imaginary.” In Mencken’s time he was often considered cynical. > Subsequent developments have proven Mencken to be a prophet. > > The Democratic Party relied heavily on the fear card in the 1920 > presidential race. On the eve of the November vote that year Democratic > presidential candidate James Cox declared: “Every traitor in America will > vote tomorrow for Warren G. Harding!” Cox’s warning sought to stir memories > of the “red raids” conducted in 1919 and 1920 by Attorney General A. > Mitchell Palmer, during which thousands of anarchists, communists, and > suspect foreigners were summarily jailed and in many cases deported. The > American people rejected Cox and embraced Warren Harding’s promise of a > “return to normalcy.” > > President Franklin Roosevelt put “freedom from fear”atop the American > political agenda in his 1941 State of the Union address. But FDR’s political > legacyespecially Social Securityhas institutionalized fear-mongering in > presidential and congressional races. Democrats perennially portray > Republicans as planning to yank life support from struggling seniors. > > For almost 50 years American politicians have used television ads to spur > dread, most famously in the 1964 “Daisy” ad for Lyndon Johnson’s campaign. > The ad showed a young girl, in the words of Jim Rutenberg in theNew York > Times, “picking the petals off a daisy before the screen was overwhelmed by > a nuclear explosion and then a mushroom cloud and Mr. Johnson declared, > ‘These are the stakes.’” The ad did not specifically claim that Barry > Goldwater, the Republican nominee, would annihilate the human race, but the > subtle hint wafted through. Though this ad only aired once, it instantly > became a legend. > > Whipping up fear was the flipside of President Bill Clinton’s “feeling > your pain” political style. Clinton fanned people’s fear of guns, militias, > and life without medical insurance. At the same time, the Clinton > administration stretched the power of government on all frontsfrom > concocting new prerogatives to confiscate private property to championing > FBI agents’ right to shoot innocent Americans to bankrolling the > militarization of local police forces. Clinton was the Nanny State champion > incarnate, teaching Americans to look to government for relief from every > peril of daily lifefrom unpasteurized cider to leaky basements. As long as > the President seemed to care about average Americans, his abuses were > largely forgotten. (The 1996 Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Bob > Dole, also promised to provide voters with “freedom from fear” via untying > “the hands of the police.”)Fear and BushThe 2004 race was the most > fear-mongering presidential campaign in modern American history. In his > acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, George W. Bush > referred to terror or terrorism 16 times. Bush reelection campaign > television ads showed firemen carrying a flag-draped corpse from the rubble > at Ground Zero in New York and a pack of wolves coming to attack home > viewers as an announcer warned that “weakness attracts those who are waiting > to do America harm.” (One commentator suggested that the ad’s message was > that voters would be eaten by wolves if John Kerry won.) Just before > Election Day a senior GOP strategist told theNew York Daily Newsthat > “anything that makes people nervous about their personal safety helps Bush.” > People who saw terrorism as the biggest issue in the 2004 election voted for > Bush by a 6 to 1 margin. Moises Naim, editor ofForeign Policy, observed that > the Bush campaign was “using the fear factor almost exclusively. This is a > highly researched decision with all the tools of public opinion management. > It’s nothing but a reflection that it works.” > > Bogus terror alerts might have made the difference in the 2004 election. > Robb Willer of the Sociology and Small Groups Laboratory at Cornell > University examined the relationship between 26 government-issued terror > warnings reported in theWashington Postand Bush’s approval ratings. “Each > terror warning from the previous week corresponded to a 2.75 point increase > in the percentage of Americans expressing approval for President Bush,” > Willer concluded. Bush beat Kerry by 2.4 percentage points in the popular > vote. Former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge later admitted that many of > the 2004 alerts were unjustified. The Cornell study also found a “halo > effect”: Americans’ approval of Bush’s handling of the economy also rose > immediately after the announcement of new terror warnings, Willer reported. > Apparently the more terrorists were allegedly poised to attack America, the > better job Bush was doing. > > Voters in 2004 could choose whether they would be killed by terrorists if > they voted for Kerry or whether they would be left destitute and tossed out > in the street if they voted for Bush. Boston University professor Tobe > Berkovitz commented to theWashington Post: “It’s not surprising that both > campaigns are looking for the leverage point: scaring the hell out of the > American public about what would happen if the other guy wins.” But the more > an election is about fear, the more the winner will presume to be entitled > to all the power he claims to need to combat the threat. > > In his 2005 State of the Union address Bush declared: “We will pass along > to our children all the freedoms we enjoy. And chief among them is freedom > from fear.” The Founding Fathers would have derided the notion of > politicians giving citizens “freedom from fear.” And they would have > denounced the notion that this new-fangled freedom is superior to the > freedoms the U.S. government had pledged to respect for more than 200 years. > > After promising freedom from fear a politician can always invoke polls > showing widespread fears to justify seizing new power. The natural result of > making freedom from fear the highest freedom is that any policy that reduces > fear can be portrayed as pro-freedom. Bush claimed that to keep Americans > safe he had to suspend habeas corpus and detain any suspected terrorist in > perpetuity based solely on his unproven assertions. Bush authorized the CIA > to use waterboarding and other methods of torture on detainees. He ordered > the National Security Agency to launch a massive illegal wiretapping program > that eavesdropped on thousands of Americans’ phone calls and emails without > warrants. Yet Bush remained a great champion of freedomat least in the eyes > of his supporters. > > The political mass production of insecurity is a dominant trait of our > age. The easiest way for rulers to destroy the leashes the Constitution > imposed on them is to make voters think they must choose: “We can obey the > Constitution or we can prevent you from all being killed. What is it going > to be?” > > Rising fear can also undermine the freedom of speech that is a bulwark > against government abuse. To the extent people desperately cling to faith in > the leader to save them from all perils, they develop an intolerance to > anyone who points out government follies or falsehoods. The Bush 2004 > reelection campaign did all it could to fan such intolerance. Stumping > around the nation for Bush, former New York City police commissioner Bernie > Kerik told audiences in the final months of the campaign: “Political > criticism is our enemy’s best friend.” As criticism is suppressed government > becomes more incorrigible. Eventually the mistakes that could have been > corrected cheaply early on become catastrophic national failures.Fear and > ObamaPresident Obama has picked up the fear-mongering relay baton with his > attempts to frighten Americans about health care, global warming, economic > collapse, and government shutdowns. Obama has also invoked the fear card to > sanctify bombing bad guys anywhere and everywhere. > > Government fear-mongering creates a downward politico-psychological > spiral. The more fearful people become the more gullible they will be. > British philosopher John Stuart Mill warned in 1842: “Persons of timid > character are the more predisposed to believe any statement, the more it is > calculated to alarm them.” It is almost irrelevant whether 10 or 20 or 30 > percent of the citizenry can see through government’s fraudulent warnings. > In a democracy as long as enough people can be frightened, all people can be > ruled. > > In the same way that some battered wives cling to their abusive husbands, > the more debacles the government causes the more some voters cling to > rulers. The craving for a protector drops an iron curtain around the mind, > preventing a person from accepting evidence that would shred his political > security blanket. In the days after the 9/11 attacks polls showed a doubling > in the number of people who trusted government to “do the right thing.” The > media fanned this blind faithas if trust in government was the high road to > public safety. The Bush administration exploited the trust to unleash itself > at home and abroad, and the nation is still paying the costs of its > post-9/11 infatuation with government. > > Bogus fears can produce real servitude. The Founding Fathers expected > the American people to bravely stand up for their rights if their rulers > trampled the law. Citizens cannot cower on cue without forfeiting any > possibility of keeping government on a leash. If this nation is to have a > rebirth of liberty, it must begin with a rebirth of courage. > http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/fear-mongering-and-servitude/ > > -- > Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. > For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum > > * Visit our other community at > http://www.PoliticalForum.com/<http://www.politicalforum.com/> > * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. > * Read the latest breaking news, and more. > -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
