Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Civility Watchdog: June 14, 2016, Eli Stokols

The plan — to encourage fear by suggesting that Washington is actively promoting policies that endanger its citizens — plays directly to the base that rewarded him with the GOP nomination.
-- Pundit Eli Stokols, June 14, 2016, in an article entitled "Trump's Politics of Fear", referring to the campaign of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Comment: It's true that Trump is appealing to fear, but this is true of many political campaigns. Trump's opponents, for instance, are "encouraging" fear by claiming that Trump will support policies that are harmful. There's nothing wrong with appealing to fear, in principle; the issue is to prove which fears are well-founded, and which fears are worse than others.

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