![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Fear_mongerer.jpg\" "\\"Fear_mongerer\\"")
<\/a>An unfortunate reality of politics is that negativism, smear campaigning, and the demonization of one\u2019s opponent are often effective for attaining votes and winning elections. No one would deny that all political parties use these methods at one time or another. The question we must ask is, \u201cWho crosses the line with boldfaced lies?\u201d<\/p>\nIt seems that election after election we hear about how Republicans want to implement policies that will \u201cstarve children\u201d, \u201cslash Social Security and take medication from the elderly\u201d, \u201cprohibit blacks from voting\u201d, \u201cdestroy the environment\u201d, \u201cdissolve civil rights\u201d, \u201ccut education funding\u201d, \u201cabolish overtime pay\u201d,\u00a0 \u201ceradicate the middle class\u201d, \u201clock up the homeless\u201d, \u201cwage fruitless wars\u201d, \u201cimplement the draft\u201d, etc., etc. Is any of it true? Has Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, or education spending ever been cut? Did anyone prevent a single black from voting in 2000 as John Kerry himself alleges? Are civil rights in this country regressing? Are pollution standards declining to dangerous levels? Are children starving? Is there a military draft in the works? It may be of interest to you to know that it was two Democrats who proposed reinstating the draft in Congress, and it was two Democrats who proposed cutting overtime pay- look it up.<\/p>\n
Now let\u2019s examine the other side. Democrats are often accused of wanting to raise taxes. Well, Democrats in Congress have fought tooth and nail against tax cuts for decades, Dukakis promised he would raise them in the 1988 election bid, Bill Clinton raised taxes astronomically (largest increase in history), and John Kerry said he would too if elected. Who is really hurting the middle class? So, this sounds like a fair criticism.<\/p>\n
Democrats are often accused of being anti-military. After Bush Sr. left office, Clinton slashed military and intelligence funding to anemic levels. Anyone ever see Black Hawk Down<\/em>? Ever hear of the Torricelli Principle? John Kerry\u2019s 20-year record in Congress shows a consistent pattern of voting for military and intelligence cuts. Kerry voted against the $87 billion for funding the Iraq war, and promises to discontinue funding for bunker-busting bombs, which are basically the only way to destroy underground weapon stockpiles. Republicans, on the other hand, consistently increase spending on the military whenever in charge.<\/p>\n Dick Cheney was chastised for stating that the U.S. would be safer if he and Bush were reelected, but isn\u2019t there a valid case to be made based on the Democrats\u2019 history? Whose policies led to the Cuban Missile Crisis? Who dragged out Vietnam? Who won the Cold War? Was Cheney merely stating that he and Bush were the best guys for the job, or was this a scare tactic? When Kerry states that he will fight \u201ca more sensitive war\u201d in Iraq, and constantly vacillates on this critical issue, then does he not open himself up to criticism? After admitting that he was frozen for 40 minutes upon hearing of the 9-11 attacks, then does he not make Bush\u2019s seven minutes seem miniscule? Ted Kennedy provides the best illustration of fear mongering when he claims that Bush\u2019s policies will lead to a nuclear attack. So, it seems that this is another fair criticism.<\/p>\n Although much of the media are biased in favor of the Democratic Party, and make every attempt to portray Republicans as the masters of scare tactics, the American people are perceptive enough to see who has truly patented this sinister methodology. It is up to the average voter to make sure that it is understood that these despicable and hypocritical tactics have become ineffective and are no longer acceptable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An unfortunate reality of politics is that negativism, smear campaigning, and the demonization of one\u2019s opponent are often effective for attaining votes and winning elections. No one would deny that… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9790"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9790\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}