I first heard the phrase politics of fear applied to liberalism in a speech the late, great Tony Judt gave at New York University. Judt was a historian of the 20th century. He knew well the horrors that resulted when social and economic turmoil spread through Europe. He thought we were forgetting the lessons of the past century and a similar eruption of reactionary, totalitarian, and barbaric forces could easily happen again, not just in Europe, but here as well.
His solution was a stronger social safety net. Yes, there are strong ethical and humanitarian reasons for government to help the less fortunate, but there's a fear factor too. Unless people can be protected and insulated from economic downturns, they will turn to a more reactionary politics for solutions. We're seeing that in Europe now with the rise of anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, neo-fascist groups. In this country, we have also seen the rise of the far right. Reactionary forces now dominate state legislatures and courts across the country. To sit back and imagine that Obama can protect us from the far right is foolish.
It's a tricky thing, to argue for a better America out of the fear that it could get much worse. But that's essentially what the politics of fear is about. We need to explain how dangerous it is for the government to stand by idly while the social and economic fabric of the country gets torn apart.
The politics of fear dovetails nicely with the ideas of the British philosopher John Gray. I've been reading a lot of him lately and though his writing sometimes feels like a screed, I still think he's worth listening to. Gray excoriates the right for blindly believing in the free market. But he also takes liberals to task for imagining that the natural flow of history is towards greater democracy, liberalism, and tolerance. It isn't. Barbarism always lurks in the wings, waiting for an opportunity to return. We will never succeed in building a world free from war, chaos, and savagery.
So let's not just imagine a country made better, stronger, and more just due to liberalism. Let's also imagine our country without it. Fear should motivate us even more than hope.