Dealing with Fear Itself

In the latest Doonesbury comic strips, the GOP has rolled out a new key endorsement they're expecting to carry them through on Election Day: Fear Itself. In another instance of satire expressing reality better than the newspaper headlines ever could, Garry Trudeau managed to nail the essential truth of modern politics: that it operates in utter fealty to fear.

Voters get manipulated by fear. And elected leaders get manipulated by fear -- fear that a corporate PAC will come after them in the next election, inundating their constituents with half-truths; fear that bucking party leadership will alter targeting decisions; fear that comfortable lives will be disturbed. Combine the fear with a sense of complacency -- "Sure, America's got problems, but can't someone else solve them?" -- and you have a recipe for disaster.

If we're going to shake-up American politics and solve the hard problems this nation faces, we're going to have to end that complacency and fight the politics of fear.

Earlier this year, we at the Progressive States Network launched a progressive book club that sends critical new progressive works to legislators across the country -- getting the cutting edge of political thought into the hands of policymakers across the country.

Our latest entry in the Book Club is Arianna Huffington's On Becoming Fearless.

We're still a relatively youthful organization, but we'll be working over the years alongside legislators who have the backbone to fight. We'll be there so that they don't have to fight these battles alone.

If you haven't already visited our new Becoming Fearless section, click here for more blog posts, news stories, and special features on relationships, work, parenting, health, sex . . . life.

 

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