Central to his opponent’s strategy is the narrative that President Donald Trump’s entire political platform is one of fear. Joe Biden claims that “Donald Trump is determined to instill fear and divide us,” Kamala Harris fundraised with the call to “elect a president who will lead with hope – not fear,” and New York Times columnist Charles Blow recently penned a piece titled “Trump, Vicar of Feat and Violence” which described Trump’s supposed use of “white fear and white victimhood as potent political weapons.”
While such shallow accusations fit into the Democrats’ habit of presenting their enemies as something entirely negative in order to present themselves as the perfect antidote — “compassion over cruelty, empathy over ego, facts over fear, and hope over hate” — there is a deeper failing beneath this strategy of simple insults.
By electing Democrats up and down the ballot, we have a chance to choose compassion over cruelty, empathy over ego, facts over fear, and hope over hate.
Not just in the White House, but in the halls of Congress, in state legislatures, and in local offices across the country.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) September 1, 2020
This pattern involves taking their worst traits, flaws, and failures of logic, and projecting it upon their enemies in an intellectual version of “I know you are, but what am I?” They claim to reject cruelty in favor of compassion while actively celebrating the destruction of unborn life. They claim to reject ego in favor of empathy while building their entire platform upon a cult of celebrity. They claim to reject fear in favor of facts while peddling the odd lie or two…
The most relevant subject of projection in our current climate of widespread riots across the country is the topic of “fear.” While the American Left have repeatedly attempted to label Trump as someone uniquely fueling this emotion for political gain, they have attempted to hide the fact that fear is one of the fundamental pillars which supports their entire ideology.
In its most obvious form, fear is leveraged by the Left by presenting any alternative to their rule as one of terror and doom. Hyperbole or deceit is carefully woven together to demonize all other choices until the Democrats remain as the only “safe” option. Such fear is stoked through ominous climate change predictions, the threat of COVID-19, or the claim that we are on the brink of a racial civil war. These vague and often unsubstantiated threats are used interchangeably with one goal in mind — to terrify people into voting blue.
In a more subtle form, the Democrats are also beholden to a devil of their own making. They have spent decades diligently nurturing the false narrative that the United States is irredeemably bigoted, that minorities should live in constant fear of the “majority” who seek their demise, and that victimhood systems such as intersectionality are principles on which all progress must be built. The problem for the Left is that, after making this bed, they are occasionally forced to lie in it. This results in a new fear — a fear of the truth.
Many have — justifiably — criticized the inconsistent attitudes demonstrated by Democrats regarding public events and COVID-19 measures. Republican rallies and anti-lockdown protests are condemned as dangerous, while Black Lives Matter rallies and pride parades are encouraged. Often, the assumption is that this inconsistency is rooted in the stereotypical hypocrisy possessed by the average politician. In cases like Nancy Pelosi’s shameless flouting of lockdown guidelines, hypocrisy is indeed the answer. However, sometimes the reason is fear.
Fear is the reason why Democrats behave differently based on the predominant identity group of those involved. Fear is why they cannot adequately criticize the violent riots gripping our country. Fear is why they label every police shooting of a black person as evidence of unwarranted police brutality. Fear is why they cannot condemn the blatant bigotry of figures like Al Sharpton, Ilhan Omar, or Louis Farrakhan.
By admitting the truth, they risk everything. You cannot criticize the riots without criticizing those responsible for the riots, including Antifa and Black Lives Matter. You cannot label anyone shot by the police as anything other than a victim without admitting that some police shootings are justified. You cannot condemn the bigotry of anyone who isn’t white without rejecting the principles of identity politics and intersectionality which claim that such conclusions are impossible.
The Democrats may state that they wish to choose facts over fear. This is hard to believe when fear is at the heart of their approach to what is true and what is false.
More from Ian Haworth: If Trump Acted Like Obama, The Left Would Explode: 5 Examples
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