Readings: Fear and Where it Leads Us, Revisiting the Financial Crisis, Fading Middle Class

AngryTrump

Photo Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The GOP likes fear.  They like when people are afraid because scared people can easily be stampeded into doing stupid things.  You could see their attraction to fear – and eagerness to use it as a political motivator – in the other night’s debate, as aptly described by Josh Marshall:

This was a good debate, in as much as a number of the candidates were either on their game or more on their game than they’ve been in previous debates. …

But all of that pales in comparison to the global picture of a country, at least a major fraction of a country, totally unhinged by ISIS and the gruesome massacre in San Bernardino, California. Certainly the first half of the debate was roiled by repeated invocations of fear, the celebration of fear, the demand that people feel and react to their fear. This was logically joined to hyperbolic and ridiculous claims about ISIS as a group that might not simply attack America or kill Americans but might actually destroy the United States or even our entire civilization.

…

There’s plenty more where that came from

…and really, what could possibly go wrong when you work people into a frenzy of anxiety?
Also…
“The Big Short” attempts to undo “The Big Lie” about what caused the financial crisis
Last week’s Pew study on how the middle class is no longer more than half of US population makes a point we need to attend to