Using fear as a political tool

Speaking for the American Constitution Society on Sunday, November 9, 2003, Former Vice President Al Gore charged President George W. Bush's administration with a determination to "use fear as a political tool to consolidate its power and to escape any accountability for its use". But, in fairness, the same thing can be said about Al Gore's use of fear to affect Global Warming policies which add to his power and pocketbook. 

"Just as unilateralism and dominance are the guiding principles of their disastrous approach to international relations, they are also the guiding impulses of the administration's approach to domestic politics. They are impatient with any constraints on the exercise of power overseas - whether from our allies, the UN, or international law. And in the same way, they are impatient with any obstacles to their use of power at home - whether from Congress, the Courts, the press, or the rule of law," he said.

Chuck Spinney, a retired Pentagon analyst, cited the late journalist H. L. Mencken who wrote that "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed [and hence clamorous to be led to safety] by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." Again, replace practical politics with Global Warming hysteria and it still reads true.

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