As much as I would like to agree with your conclusion, Steve, I doubt we've seen the last of fear as a political tool. While we may not want the politics of fear, one data point does not prove that we have outgrown the use of it - or responding to it.

I think much of the credit for why fear didn't work in this election has to go to a uniquely gifted candidate. Obama's deep, pervasive calm, his Zen master ability to show the most retraint in the most trying circumstances (and particularly in comparison to McCain himself) neutered the scare tactics.

When McCain told people "Obama is scary!" they watched the second debate and saw Obama as a level-headed, moderate, professorial type while McCain was a manic nutjob. At that point a fear-smear was, essentially, telling Americans "believe my smear, not your own lying eyes." People had seem Obama in action and there wasn't anything remotely scary about his demeanor.

This will be studied in future campaigns as the model of how to immunize against the typical Republican fear machine.

Not to be critical, Steve, but a lot of us realized that McCain was running on a fear campaign while it was happening. It was like watching Groundhog Day except the cast changed.

The whole playbook of fear stayed the same, though. That was one of my 487 reasons for supporting Obama.

Fear has been the Republican's only issue for the last 28 years. Yesterday marked the beginning of their only issue running out of steam. It's not dead yet. It won't be for a very long time to come.

It's a great achievement for Obama to have won this election. It marks the start of a very long road this country will have to take to get back to the true meanings it aspires to.

It's not going to be easy or fast.

I would take it a step further. Fear is not merely a tactic that the Right Wing uses against its opponents. Fear is a defining characteristic of conservatism itself. That is why a campaign based on fear-mongering resonates so powerfully with the conservative base. And that is the dirty little secret about conservatism. For all their tough talk and swagger and "hawkisness", conservatives are, at heart, scared, insecure people who retreat to the familiar, the known, the tribe when confronted by the things that are different from them.

The victory was not quite shattering enough to convince the republican brain trust to change the play book. Norm 'spite' Coleman and Michelle 'the hater' Bachmann going back to congress along with the Alaska criminal posse ... nope I expect the GOP will double down on the hate and fear for 2010. But if they don't make much headway in 2010, then you might see a rethink. Some of these things are generational. People who came up doing things a certain way simply don't want to change. A lot of house and senate republicans are like that. The republican in Oregon seems to be the big exception, he ran towards Obama to get elected.

As much as I would like to agree with your conclusion, Steve, I doubt we've seen the last of fear as a political tool.

Of course not -- the Republican base responds to it like Pavlov's dogs in an alarm clock factory, and they're enough to keep the Reptiles in power in the South, Plains and Big Sky regions.

In other words, what Ted Frier said.

Fear also worked well for the democrats and lets not forget it.
When Obama was trailing in the polls in September there was a strong campaign of fear that i found particularly offensive being a cancer survivor. The ads with closeups of Mccains face scared from cancer surgery cannot be overlooked.

Most of politics is not complicated. It's presented as complicated by people who have a vested interest in complexity -- meaning those people who purport to be able to make sense out of it all for a fee. This includes bloggers.

In 2004 the Democratic party made a change argument. The Republican party countered with fear mongering and nationalism, and barely won.

Recognizing that they had been duped, the majority of Americans, in 2006 and 2008, told the Republican party to go fuck itself.

Everything else is noise.

McCain was at a big disadvantage if the biggest fears he could come up with included a middle name and sharing a charity board with an old hippie. But fear will continue to be the Republican strategy, because the ultra rich can't sell, "I'm with you." They have to sell "I'll protect you."

The republican brand in its present incarnation is just the latest to represent the American aristocracy in their appeal to the commoner by using the tactics of creating common enemies (fear), internal and external. We can probably trace the roots to the feudal state and beyond, even to the origins of civilization and the rise of class structures and regimes composed of the religious, military and political elites. It is basically a protection racket with most of the material benefits rising to the top.

Fear worked as long as people weren't paying attention. They'll stop paying attention again sooner or later. Then fear will work its magic once again. It may take a generation, but our "conservative" friends have already demonstrated the patience and long-range planning (ironic considering how short-sighted they are) necessary to lie in wait for decades, if need be.

I wouldn't put it that way. Rather, fear is not enough; solutions are what's required. Everybody gets the fear part.

Actually, Steve, the story appeared earlier in a NYT Magazine piece:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/magazine/26mccain-t.html?ref=magazine

I'm curious how the hate and fear mongers of talk radio are going to react. Will they go on the attack, starting today? Any volunteers? I simply can't stand to listen to them.

off topic but:

the whole thing is simply amazing! even though i was less nervous than most liberals were in the final weeks, it is still truly amazing to see it actually come to fruition, solidly, with what even fox news suggested was "a mandate." the people have spoken and elected a truly exceptional man, offspring of a Kenyan immigrant and a woman from Kansas. a self-made man, as most Democratic presidents are.

in the coming days you are going to here A TON about how america is a "center-right" nation. i'm not so sure about that. think of it this way- the democrat won the plurality of the popular vote in FOUR OF THE LAST FIVE presidential election. they also have nearly swept every competitive congressional race in the last TWO elections.

i don't know that it means the nation is a "center left" nation, but it does mean that the dominant political movement of my life is dead- Reaganism. trickle down economics and trusting big business to always do the right thing in a casino environment is over with. it has been thoroughly repudiated. government may not always be the solution, but it is not always the problem as many of the problems we are in could have been dealt with a lot earlier if the greenspans and norquists and delays and george w bush of this world lived on planet earth instead of some ayn rand fantasy world.

the only other positive big political event of my lifetime was the bringing down of the berlin wall. beyond that, though, what have we had to feel good about? impeaching the most popular president of the last half century (read the numbers), the horrific disputed election of 2000 that lead george bush who did not even win a plurality of the vote in the nation to rule as if he had received the kind of mandate president elect barack obama has indeed received. then the big bush disasters: 9/11, Iraq, Katrina, the financial meltdown.

this is truly a moment of great hope for this nation. the country is ready to turn the page on bush and reagan and chart a new 21st century path forward. america is ALREADY stronger than she was yesterday- on account of electing a man that the world can respect and that increases their respect for us. thomas jefferson and the founding fathers understood that it is important to be respected as a nation and nothing wipes away the hideous stain of george walker bush's failures better than electing a minority, a Democrat, a man of exceptional intellect and understanding and a man who truly believes that working together, all americans can create a better future. a community organizer, Constituional law professor, and the first president from illinois since abraham lincoln (whose 200th b-day is coming up soon- how fitting).

for the first time in my adult life, i am REALLY PROUD of my country. we face enormous challenges but have undoubtedly elected the right man at the right time to lead us. out of great crisis grows great opportunity, and a President Barack Hussein Obama will have the opportunity to positively effect the future of this nation like no man since franklin delano roosevelt.

a quick shoutout to john mccain who, although running the sleaziest and lease substantive campaign i've ever seen and disqualifying himself to the american people with his unconscionable choice of sarah palin for vice president and his erratic gimmickry surrounding campaigning and the financial crisis (and please, "joe the plumber," GO AWAY), he nonetheless gave a very good concession speech (over many loud booos from his crowd) and did reach out his hand to the next president and has begun to try to heal the many festering wounds he has attempted to profit on and expose. its hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube when you've convinced a good quarter to a third of the country that the president elect is basically the embodiment of all that is evil and wrong, but mr. mccain did take one step forward in trying to ease the hatred oozing from his side.

will the republican party reform itself and serve as a useful opposition to the democrats? so far the answer seems to be no: if sarah palin is the next leader of the gop that would be great for democrats and bad for democracy. already the cable news channels are trying to spin this away from what it clearly is- a thorough beatdown of republican orthodoxy. yet many in that movement still insist it was that they "went away from their principles." its simply another variation on the idea that conservatism never fails it is only failed- by apostates like george bush and tom delay who abandoned their principles.

no no no no no. sorry, but george bush was the most conservative (and worst) president since hoover. he is far MORE conservative than the nation. he had a free reign under extraordinary circumstances (9/11) to do whatever he wanted and had entire control of the federal government. and now everyone sees the mess that was left behind.

when republicans decide to tone down the culture wars, move into the 21st century by embracing well-accepted science, understand that the middle class needs more than a few crumbs for the ELITES to continue to prosper, stops trying to undo the new deal which the voters have reaffirmed over and over again, and embraces a diverse, multi-cultural world, they will not deserve the respect or votes of the american people.

G-d bless America. may obama live to serve out his terms(s) in good health. may he help bridge the divides that have made this a red-blue nation up until now. may he continue to understand and expand on the reality that it is not every man for himself- we are all in this together.

dr. king's dream is a big step closer to realization.

USA! USA! USA!

The Republican party as of late has over played the fear card, and Americans responded yesterday to such sophistry with a stop-this-shit vote!

I hope Gonzo's observation can now be fully embraced by politicians - Fear (and Loathing) belong exclusively in Las Vegas! -Kevo

Somewhere in the far North, a lonely voice crys out, "And, I can see Fear from my front porch"

Fear is not merely a tactic that the Right Wing uses against its opponents. Fear is a defining characteristic of conservatism itself.

Sure. And that's not going to change. But before we get into a big debate about whether it was only Obama's personality and demeanor that made this possible or whether it's a sign of long-term changes in the electoral mood, could we just freaking savor the victory for a day? One day?

I spent Saturday night being called a terrorist by registered Democrats in a white, lower middle class Indianapolis neighborhood. My husband took some mild threats and both of us marveled at the palpable hostility toward Obama from people who have everything to gain by his presidency.

And so what? We spent the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday canvassing other Indianapolis residents of several colors and a variety of economic circumstances who were absolutely thrilled to be voting for Obama.

This time there were more people voting on positivity and possibility than there were on fear and loathing. Last night we found out there are more of us than there are of them. That's not a small thing.

As an Indianapolis resident, I salute shortstop's service. You have my gratitude!

I really believe that as the US becomes more racially and religiously diverse, these GOP fear tactics (which have worked so well in the past) will become less and less effective. The GOP is on its way to becoming the White Minority party unless they wise up.

Time to revisit Randy Newman's "Just a few words in defense of our country" -

A President once said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
Now it seems like we’re supposed to be afraid. It’s patriotic in fact and color coded
And what are we supposed to be afraid of?
Why, of being afraid. That’s what terror means, doesn’t it? That’s what it used to mean.

Ted Frier at 10:53,

Nice riff on fear and conservatism. I even copied your remarks to my hard drive so that I can plagiarize you later.

I don't often toot my own horn, but there is something I wrote about a year ago that keeps coming back to my mind. It's called "Faith in a Time of Fear" and I'm inordinately proud of it. And I think it speaks to the point that the old scaremongering won't work anymore. I'd be honored if anyone decides to check it out:

http://www.adfinemfidelis.net/mongrel/2007/09/11/faith-in-an-age-of-fear/

The post here misses the point about the McCain campaign. There was no answer to the question of why people should vote for John McCain that did not sink under the crushing handicap of President Bush's unpopularity.

McCain, by record and personality, is a natural change candidate. This year, though, any substantive call for change would have put him in the position of running against the record of the incumbent Republican President, still popular within the party; if it did succeed in winning him votes outside the party it would cost him votes within the party. Defending President Bush's record wasn't tenable either; a huge majority of voters outside the GOP not only disagrees with Bush but has come to dislike him personally.

Those were McCain's only two choices, as far as strategy is concerned. His campaign ended up trying to split the difference, calling for generic change and reiterating longtime Republican calls for lower taxes and spending while embracing Bush's positions on every major policy issue, trying never to mention or be seen with Bush, and trying to raise doubts about his opponent.

Of course it didn't work. But if the financial markets' panic hadn't happened when it did, McCain's very tactical campaign might have come very close to working. The question is why this should have been -- and the answer, I think, is that Sen. Obama's general election campaign was also highly tactical, responding quickly and effectively to attacks on its candidate but also ceding the initiative to McCain most of the time.

Now, Obama's campaign was also exceptionally well organized and extremely well funded, which helped him enormously. But by Election Day, many voters had little clearer idea who Barack Obama was, what was most important to him, and what kind of President he would be than they had had when he clinched the nomination. This reflects the shortcoming of strategic thought by Obama, or his campaign staff, or both; they failed to recognize the opportunity offered to them by Americans' radically altered opinion of the Republican President. In short, right from the beginning Obama focused on running against McCain, not against George Bush. That was a serious mistake. Had it not been for the timing of the market meltdown, it might even have been a fatal one.

This is all campaign commentary, and should not be taken as deprecation either of Obama's historic achievement or the months of effort dedicated to his campaign by hundreds of thousands of his supporters. I hope that a President Obama will not have cause to regret that he did not seek from the start a mandate to repair the damage done to the American government in the last eight years -- a period in which George Bush and Dick Cheney ran the show in Washington, and John McCain was little more than a bit player.

"I would take it a step further. Fear is not merely a tactic that the Right Wing uses against its opponents. Fear is a defining characteristic of conservatism itself."

Right. It just dawned on Steve that fear is the basic conservative strategy?

To me, the more important part of the WSJ story is that McCain's campaign team realized--in June--that they had no positive message, no way to make a case for McCain, no positive story or narative. That's more telling than anything.

Before we all get carried away, this election largely came down to people voting their pocketbooks. I happen to agree that fear fosters paralysis and exhaustion and isolation and a host of other not-very-attractive responses. Our response to 9/11 has always bothered me in that regard. But nearly half of the popular vote went with the fear candidate yesterday.

No, not just fear. They also employed contempt.

I would also disagree that the use of fear is dead as a political tool. The reason fear did not work this time was simply that people were more afraid for their own financial future than they were of Obama. But let's not forget that depsite all his screw-ups and the state of the economy, McCain still got about 47% of the popular vote, and that plenty of people still voted for him because they were afraid of Obama and thought he was a Muslim terrorist. Let's face it, in most any other country in the world, McCain would not have gotten even 40% of the vote.

The bigger issue for Republicans is not that they couldn't answer the "Why should I vote for John McCain" question. It's that they could not answer the "Why should I vote Republican" question.

Taxes no longer works for them as an issue because the American people have finally realized that you cannot lower taxes forever and still have a functioning government.

Reducing spending no longer works because people actually like a huge number of government programs and do not want to see them cut.

Being stronger on foreign policy no longer works for them because of how they've bungled the last eight years.

Deregulation no longer works for them because of all the corporate scandals.

So that's four defining Republican issues that they can no longer run on.

What does that leave them....not much.

Paul, I think Zathras's view is that fear is not a strategy of conservatism, it is conservatism. Fear of change, i.e. keeping the status quo, is essentially what conservatism is all about. Conservatives point to their opponents changes and say - be afraid of these specific changes, we don't need to make them, everything's fine right now.

The current republicans don't do that though. They've moved to "our opponent will change 'something', we don't know what or how - fear, fear, fear, fear". They can't make the status quo argument, because they aren't conservatives - they are changing everything too. Which is convenient, because they are claiming the status quo, except when change goes well. If it goes bad, it doesn't matter who made the change, it was the fault of their opponents' (lots of scary opponents) who you should FEAR (insert slippery slope argument here)!

There is no question that appeals to fear worked for some 'low information' voters. While canvassing on Monday as part of the Obama GOTV effort, I approached a woman who was taking loads of stuff from her car into a house. Turned out she was the cleaning lady. I asked her the standard questions -- 'are you ready to vote tomorrow? Can we count on your support...?' She said 'absolutely not. That Obama is a Marxist who hangs around with terrorists... says he's Christian but really is a Muslim.' -- I'm not making this up, a poor white woman likely just eaking out a living doing contract house cleaning in a very ordinary part of town.
I was taken back a little, but then thought about the future. An Obama administration will probably be successful in making her life a little easier, help improve her kids education, get some healthcare and it certainly won't confirm her fears. So then what will she do with that cognitive disonance? I said 'OK, we won't agree now, but when Obama is in office and doesn't act like you fear but improves all of our lives a little, I'd like you to find someone to apologize to for all those things you are spreading around now.'