Beware of 'Those' People

Make no mistake, I believe the 'fear factor' is a strong motivating tool. I recall as a young boy, Grandpa E V Bennett shaved every morning with a straight razor. He'd lather his face first and before shaving, he would grab the bottom of his leather razor strap (hanging from the wall) and begin stroking the razor blade back and forth across that leather to sharpen the blade. Once satisfied with the sharpness, E V began to shave. E V used that old leather-razor strap for another purpose. A fear-factor purpose. When any of the youngsters would become rambunctious or misbehave, E V would nod towards that imposing strap and say, "You best straighten up or I'll be takin' that razor strap to your backside."

I believe the 'fear factor' got a foothold in American politics in the 1960's when the Democrats passed those civil rights laws. It was then that the Republican Party began blanketing the South with boogieman stories about 'those' people. The Deep South, once a Democratic stronghold has voted Republican ever since. The GOP continues to be successful with 'color' fear mongering. The suggestion is always 'Big Government' is taxing working White folks to subsidize lazy Black folks. Never mind that the biggest government handout goes to White farmers. Republicans advance the fearful notion that another 'brown skin' group (Hispanics) are undercutting White workers as they accept lower wages. Really? We know very well the true story there...some of those jobs done by Hispanics are refused by Whites and many corporations and farmers find it to their financial advantage to actually hire the undocumented workers at the cheaper wage. Pay attention to the States with Republican Governors who have 'broken the trade unions (Wisconsin) or Governors who are trying to bust the trade unions (Illinois).

There is historical references to this fear-factor propaganda behavior. Germans and Jews have written books about it and America can tell endless Native American stories as documentation. The irony is that the Republicans have one of their own to blame...A. Lincoln. In 2016, the fearful folks elected an individual who was extremely clever with both verbal and subliminal fear mongering.