We are two days out from the Presidential election and the post-game show is already well underway. Consequently, I will not be adding to this by trying to explain the Trump victory or analyze the Harris loss. Instead, I want to focus on something that both campaigns shared and distributed equally—and that is fear.
The message from the Democratic side was simple and direct: "Our democracy is in danger from one man, and we must stop him." The Republicans, by contrast constructed a different threat: "You and your family are in danger from a hoard of undocumented 'others.’”
The subject of the Democratic message was collective, it is our democracy that is vulnerable. The subject of the Republican message, by contrast, was individual and personal. This is about you and your family. Likewise, the object of the fear also differs. On the Democratic side, the threat was personified by a specific individual—the former president. The object of fear in the Republican message, however, was abstract and ambiguous, which arguably helped contribute to its perceived danger and urgency.
These differences are important as they tell us something about the two parties and ourselves. The Democratic message proceeded from a shared sense of community—an us—and identified a threat in an individual who did not share our values. The Republican message spoke to the individual and mobilized xenophobia in an effort fabricate an impending peril from an amorphous and collective other. Fear definitely sells, but how and what is the important difference.
