They Ask Questions

An earlier question, posed by Virg Bernero on his Facebook page :

"Why is it we are not afraid to fight for physical security, but allow our economic security to be stolen away with nary a whimper?"

prompted the following response from me:

"Because, it is much easier to make an enemy of, or categorize as "other" a threat from another nation, or as in the GWOT, a group of terrorists, than it is to create in the minds of the public the perception of an economic threat. This is largely due to the propaganda put forth, at least since Reagan, that Capitalism = Democracy. We are taught that "competition" is always good, and that restriction of trade is always bad, but this is not so, as evidenced by the race to the bottom that has been taking place for the last thirty years or so. Add into that the myth that "you, too, can become rich," which results in people opposing sane tax policies, and the demonization of unions, and you get what we have now: Stagnant wages and rising unemployment."

You see, in order to have a war, you need to have an Enemy.  The Right in this country is very good at conjuring up enemies.  Osama bin Laden wants to come and bomb your cities!  The Mexicans are taking your jobs! The Liberals want to take your guns!  They're killing the baaaaabieeess! Barack Obama wants to make you a Socialist!  See?  That's easy.  You choose a boogey-man, stir up a little fear, point it at your target audience, and, voila!  Political victory.  The Left (if there really is a Left in this country, but that's a rant for another day) is not quite so adept at this strategy.  They (we) tend to operate under the assumption that people can be reasoned with, but this is simply not the case.  This is how the Right has consistently, and very effectively, been able to convice a large portion of the population to vote against their own interests.  It's lovely and generous and very erudite to behave as if everyone is sensible and informed and able to form an opinion based on the facts, but the sad truth is that a considerable portion of the American electorate is not moved by logic or reason or facts.  They are motivated by fear and prejudice and hatred.  The lesson from all of this for the Left?   You cannot reason a person out of a position into which they did not reason themselves.