Twilight Zone Re-run

The recent Cheney remark that if we vote for Kerry we will be attacked by terrorists was a slip of the tongue that revealed the method behind the madness. It is the Bush plan to keep Americans scared to death so they will vote for him even though we all know that he is a bully whose wrong choices have cost each of us dearly and that he has lied to us in the past and continues to lie to us.
This entry was first published on July 31, 2004. Some things are true enough to say twice.

I am tired of hearing George W. Bush talk about the threat of terrorism. Wouldn’t you think he would want us to feel safe under his leadership? And, since he has misrepresented so much, wouldn’t he even nudge the information to make us feel good about him? Why would he want to keep us afraid?
Someone else has been asking that question,
and you can read the report here.
Apparently, keeping us terrified is good for Bush. According to this report and the CNN story about it, people who are thinking about either 9/11 or their own death say they would vote for Bush, and people thinking about common situations like college exams or watching television say they would vote for Kerry.
The CNN story quotes Sheldon Solomon, a social psychologist at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York who specializes in terrorism: “There are people all over who are claiming every time Bush is in trouble he generates fear by declaring an imminent threat.”
Does the threat work?
According to the CNN report, the study showed that it did:

The volunteers were aged from 18 into their 50s and described themselves as ranging from liberal to deeply conservative. No matter what a person’s political conviction, thinking about death made them tend to favor Bush, Solomon said. Otherwise, they preferred Kerry.
“I think this should concern anybody,” Solomon said. “If I was speaking lightly, I would say that people in their, quote, right minds, unquote, don’t care much for President Bush and his policies in Iraq.”
He wants voters to be aware of psychological pressures and how they are used.