The Architects of Fear

Fear has been a major part of the Republican election strategy forever, since long before master manipulator Karl Rove was a blastocyst. Heck, the Republicans don't even have a lock on it: the classic "Daisy" ad was a Democratic piece for Johnson against Goldwater.

McCain-Palin has, in these final weeks, turned more and more often to playing off their core audience's fear of Obama's "other"-ness. And this weekend, it came back to bite them in a big way:



Many of the innuendos, rumors, and outright lies about Obama that have gotten so much traction among the Republican faithful, and so much mileage for the Republican elite, have originated with a single source: self-described "colorful person" Andy Martin. From the New York Times article "The Man Behind the Whispers About Obama":

“Everybody uses my research as a takeoff point,” Mr. Martin said, adding, however, that some take his writings “and exaggerate them to suit their own fantasies.”

...Mr. Martin, who says he is from a well-off banking and farming family,is clearly pleased with his newfound attention. But, he said, others have added to his work in “scary” ways.

“They Google ‘Islam’ and ‘Obama’ and my stuff comes up and they take that and kind of use that — like a Christmas tree, and they decorate it,” he said. For instance, he said, he did not necessarily ascribe to a widely circulated e-mail message from the Israeli right-wing activist Ruth Matar, which includes the false assertion, “If Obama were elected, he would be the first Arab-American president.”

Read the rest of the article here. (Free registration may be required.)

How many opinions and arguments that you will hear up until Election Day (and perhaps beyond) will be based on material first supplied by Andy Martin? How many votes have been swayed by the fear that he has sowed among a gullible electorate desperate for some way to legitimize their visceral reactions to Barack Obama?

Be sure you vote on November 4th. Because this woman sure as hell will. And that's something that should make all of us feel a little fearful.




TITLE REFERENCE: "The Architects of Fear," season 1 episode of The Outer Limits, referenced in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's Watchmen. Not really an appropriate reference here, but the title fits.