Fear itself: Democrats' favorite strategy caused their current chaos

By Tammy Bruce
Real Clear Wire

The last few weeks sharply remind us of the old adage – “Man Plans, and God Laughs.” In less than 30 days, the American political world has been upended by a series of shocking events most people are still trying to fully comprehend. 

From a remarkably disastrous debate for President Joe Biden against former president Donald Trump, to the attempted assassination of Trump a short 16 days later, then two days after that the start of a well-organized and produced Republican convention with an injured but unbowed Trump, to the withdrawal of Biden as the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, it’s safe to say none of us knows what happens next.

One thing we do know – the divisive and hateful rhetoric employed by the left against Trump and his supporters is what has fed both the unraveling of the Democratic Party and the awakening of Americans to the reality of the lies and manipulation we’ve endured since Biden took office.

There has been an effort to train us to “suspend disbelief” about Biden’s condition, what they were doing to the country, and even the specifics of who was in charge at the White House. After the assassination attempt, we were also told the Democrats would “tone down” their rhetoric against Trump. That pledge lasted about 24 hours. Between now and November 5, no matter the Democratic nominee, they will double down on malignant identity politics and fearmongering.

In my new book, “Fear Itself: Exposing the Left’s Mind-Killing Agenda,” I address the left’s deliberate use of fear and manipulation to push the American people into retreat on issues of importance politically and culturally. It is unsustainable for a government to rely exclusively on gaslighting and emotional abuse writ large, and it has fed the chaos we’re now seeing unfold in the Democratic Party. Here’s an excerpt from my introduction explaining what’s behind the inexplicable:

“Something's not right.” I’ve said that to myself many times in the last few troubling and tumultuous years. I bet you have as well. It’s a plaintive remark, made as we connect the dots between the abnormal cultural and political dumpster fires erupting all around us. It’s also an acknowledgment that left-wing bullies who fancy themselves social and political Masters of the Universe have weaponized fear in a sinister effort to control us. They want to frighten us into cowering in the corner, so we let them restructure our society and dictate a new set of core beliefs they demand we embrace, confirming their imagined superiority in all things. They even demand we change how we speak and write language so they can change the way we think...

If they can keep you in an unthinking fear loop, they can stop you from questioning or confronting them about the damage they heap onto society. There is one necessary component for the left’s agenda to be successful – the annihilation of the ordinary person’s personal courage – the trait required to withstand danger and fear. 

When courage is lost, with it goes the willingness to confront the powerful and malevolent. It is this conjuring of ancient, mindless fear that tyrants have perfected through millennia, propelling us into actions and decision-making based on emotion, absent the mediators of logic and reason. It is not about distracting us with frightening event after frightening event but indoctrinating us into a perpetual fear-based “new normal.” It’s an exhausting state, creating anxiety, paranoia, and with it a retreat from social and political life. The goal of killing our minds, turning us into fear-driven automatons lacking confidence and courage, willing to bow and conform, is the putrid soup served up by the Marxists, tyrants, bullies, and bureaucracies, preferring that all of us stay out of their way...

The deliberate strategy of using fear as a weapon of control dates back to ancient times, but modern communications and other technological tools give the fear-mongers power unimaginable in years past. Marxists, bullies, and malignant narcissists occupying positions of power throughout our governmental and cultural infrastructure are using fear to distract, depress, isolate, and mentally disarm us.

Progressives are desperate for us to believe that we are the problem, that America is the problem, and most of all, that any and all dissent from their orthodoxy must be quashed. Why? Because leftist ideology is a house of cards; the only way to maintain it is to either imprison their opposition, or, at the very least, imprison the minds of those who object...

For generations, we have all been targeted by the political and attendant cultural establishments to ensure that fear controls our minds. The schemes and agendas put forth by the entrenched political establishment are designed to keep us ignorant, anxious, and feeling unable to control the present and future. The leftist elite want us to feel helpless and hopeless and dependent on Big Government to tell us what to do and how to do it to solve our problems. I am determined to help us smash that plan.

Using these ancient political techniques that have been perfected through millennia, the modern American political bureaucracy focuses on driving us into actions and decision-making based on emotion, absent the mediators of logic and reason. Why? Because it creates more fear and more chaos.

This is the foundational strategy driving the “progressive” agenda specifically. In “Fear Itself,” I discuss the malignant alliance between government, academia, and business and how Americans have endured vague designer threats, an endless array of verbal attacks, name-calling, bullying, arbitrary rules, regulations, and “punishment” if we fail to obey and conform to the liberal orthodoxy. All of this may sound familiar to you – this strategy follows a pattern eerily similar to domestic violence. 

The good news is, with voter movement toward Trump, Americans are beginning to say “enough is enough,” leading us to another opportunity to firmly reject the fear, abuse and chaos to which the Democrats seem addicted.

Tammy Bruce is the author of "Fear Itself: Exposing the Left’s Mind-Killing Agenda" (Broadside Books, 2024) and a Fox News political contributor. She is a former president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women. 

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