Fear!

Please read this diary from kid oakland over at the DailyKOS. It lays out in the starkest terms the modus operandi of George W. Bush in the final weeks of this campaign. At its heart the Bush campaign is not based on scaring the undecided into its camp, its about scaring the waverers within its camp into believing that leaving will put them in mortal peril. As harsh as Bush is on Kerry and those who support him, he is several times worse on those who might even consider abandoning him at a time of America's greatest peril.

I think he has it exactly right. And what is deeply troubling is that when Bush loses, the people whom he has scared into his camp will be let loose into a world of their greatest fears, a world without George W. Bush(*). I fear greatly the impact on our future when 40% of our electorate is convinced in their heart that their new President is a threat to their very existence. For that is the message that George W. Bush has implanted in their hearts.

Those people will be ripe for the first post-election smear campaign that the Republicans will spring on a President Kerry. We have to be prepared for the fight to come, for it will be worse than anything we are facing right now.

(* - Let me put it this way: that 40% are being trained to fear a world without Bush so that they would abide anything that the Bushies might do in order to keep him in power or, if necessary, restore him to power. And I do mean anything.)