Republican Use of Fear to Gain Votes on Presidential Election Essay Example
Following the high tension of political power in the United States, political parties have been using different strategies to owe majority voters on their side. Since the 1860s, the two main parties in America have been the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. Republican Party has the most number of seats in the House of Representatives as well as the majority number in the Senate. From History, United States has remainder working on a stable republican type of government, which is directly elected by the citizens of the country with the exception of president. United States Constitution gives the Electoral College the power to elect the president.
In this context, electors cast their votes to determine the popular vote. History has it that those who go against the popular vote are extremely rare. Due to the organized presidential election syste
...ms, presidential aspirants in United States are faced with great challenge of persuading voters. As a result, Candidates are forced to employ various strategies to sway majority people on their sides in order to be elected. In the article “Scary Politics”, Staedter argues that Republicans effectively gain votes by inciting fear into voters. After further investigation about this assertion, I agree that Republicans provoke a sense of fear to gain votes, and by doing they sometimes tend to create false dilemmas.
Following the recent arguments from the Republican presidential candidates, it is clear that majority of their opinions are rooted from the spirit of fear. First, Donald Trump, a Republican presidential aspirant who ought to flag the Republican Party for presidency loves to scare people as a strategy to win more people on his side. In most o
his campaigns, Trump is quoted warning the Americans about the Mexican rapists regarding them as job stealers who dreams of sabotaging the American economy. Besides, Ted Cruz, a close opponent of Trump in Republican Party warns people of gay marriages. Ted claims that gay marriages and another sort of immorality trending in America are a great threat to religious liberty. The study shows that the Republican Party is gaining much popularity out of the use of racial resentments. Historians and political analysts argue that use of racial resentments to gain support imply fear and incompetency in politics (Ridout & Kathleen 439).
Moreover, Ben Carson likened the Obama administration to the Nazis. Scary Politics article by Tracy Staedter shows that all these rhetoric from the Republicans are meant to confuse the Americans voters to win their support. It is clear that nothing of great value comes from the fear driven decisions because that tempts people to give much weight to some issues than they deserve. Trevor LaFauci article on January 12, 2016, shows how the modern Republicans are using fear to oppress the poor rural voters.
The writer quotes “The Republicans’ politics is filled with stories of death, violence and destruction while in the real sense the situation is different from what they express” (Weaver & Kent. 371) . Although their might be few cases of illegal immigration that raises the terror alarm, the Obama administration has tried to curb the situation at a greater height. In some circumstances, the Republicans ideologies for fighting against foreign and domestic terrorism marks a progressive change towards eliminating radicalized groups in the United States and other parts of the world if
well structured( Katz & Richard 75).
Despite the rising terror issues manifested by the Republicans, the truth of the matter is quite different. Research shows that violent crime in the United States is at its lowest for more than three decades. The study also shows that terrorists’ attack by refugees is at the decline in the United States with no cases of being reported for the past five years (Scarry & John 45). The controversy arising from Illegal immigration has been solved in United States despite the Republicans raising the alarm on it.
Trump inflicts fear on people claiming that these issues are a setback to the United States, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending the best, and they’re sending people that have lots problems. They are bringing drugs; they are bringing crime. “Trump resentments of fear during an announcement (Light, &Carolyn Nancy et.al 55). Political Analyst argues that resentments of fear used by the Republicans about the inconvenient truths are undermining their party platforms. This is because the strategy of drumming up fears without facts will lead them to a downfall.
The Republicans resentments of fear are causing a great havoc in the United States; the innocent Muslims are being accused of being ISIS sympathizers when the reality is different. Use of false claims makes the Republicans be termed as masters of manipulation. The legal immigrants in America are living in fear of being labelled as victims of illegal immigration. Republicans policies are undermining the true ability and merit of the blacks and other non-Americans in the name of fighting against terrorist, “with the terrorists, you have to take out their families,” Republicans warns Americans
of voting other parties suggesting that the Democratic Party has failed to protect Christians who from Muslim oppression. This shows political incompetence of the Republicans for failing to stand with facts in progressing their dream to take the presidency of American States.
Scary politics have it that politics of fear are based on supporting partisan issues. Republican politics of fear explains why the majority of their supporters may end up not voting for the party candidates despite having confidence in the political party. Patrick Egan argues that politics of fear have greatly distorted American politics to a greater extend. Egan tries to change people’s believe that Republican administration do better on military, immigration and domestic policies. He insists on the people’s will to evaluate individual performance and plans each candidate has put in place for achieving their target instead of relying on unjustified data released by Republicans on fear of losing to the Democratic party (Scarry & John 35).
The Republican needs to change their political strategies from using provocative messages to using justified ideas that rely on the existing truths. Spreading unjustified data on the kind of fears that America such as such as terrorists, job insecurity and criminal activities instead of coming up with better strategies to curb the situation does not help to achieve the progressive agenda for the American people.
The scaremongering tactics used by the Republican to get more voters implies a great danger to the political system of United States. Zaidi Jilani through AlterNet claims the use of scares that “Michelle Nunn is a pro-Terrorist for working with Muslim charities is a threatening policy that Lacks justified basics. Zaidi goes against the
Republican claims of fear that Obama administration is importing terrorists to their neighbors in order to violate the Peaceful State of the American people. All these claims were found baseless after data showed that the Democratic Party rule has helped to secure the American borders with their neighbors.
Although most of the republican political agendas are based on fear to lure more voters, some of the republican ideas were found helpful in transforming American policies. First, the Republican ideas on Immigration, Anti-terrorism, and Military policies if well implemented on basics of truth can yield significant achievements to American people towards promoting world peace and security. It is an evident that most Republican policies lack background support since they use false criteria to diminish Obama administration by criticizing his development programs United States government has achieved. It is true that the Republican Party policies based on fear are painting pictures of violent and unsafe government, which in reality do not exist in United States. Besides, Republican politics is using fear to blind the poor majority from realizing the party failure. For instance, the party uses unjustified claims to attribute it’s the cause of its failure on their neighbors for causing financial and security ruin in the United States instead of devising mechanisms to empower their policies.
Work Cited
- http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2015/10/conservative_politicians_campaign_on_fear_and_it_works.html
- http://www.thepeoplesview.net/main/2016/1/11/the-great-lie-how-the-modern-gop-uses-fear-to-oppress-poor-rural-voters
- Katz, Richard S. Democracy and elections. Oxford University Press on Demand, 1997.
- Ridout, Travis N., and Kathleen Searles. "It's my campaign I'll cry if I want to: How and when campaigns use emotional appeals." Political Psychology32.3 (2011): 439-458.
- Scarry, John F., ed. Political structure and change in the prehistoric Southeastern United States. University Press of Florida, 1996.
- Weaver, R. Kent. "The
politics of blame avoidance." Journal of public policy6.04 (1986): 371-398.
