The Politics of Fear

Avoid Falling For It

Right now, a lot of people are scared beyond belief. I hear this pretty constantly, from all corners. From people I wouldn’t expect to hear this from: like strangers. I talk to virtually everyone with whom I come into contact. Like on line at the supermarket. I’ve been doing this for decades, striking up conversations with strangers. And at some point, I’ll ask how they’re doing, and what I’ve been hearing, directly, is “I’m terrified”, followed by a list of what is scaring them.

Fear is the currency of MAGA.

Fear is how they won the 2024 Presidential election.

Think about it: when you consider the driving forces that convinced people to vote for the convicted felon, they were ALL fear based:

• Fear immigrants because they rape your women, take your job, live in a house that you can’t afford, take over whole towns as gang members, and given the opportunity, will eat your pets.

• Fear transgender people because they use the wrong bathroom, and something bad will happen to you if you’re in a public bathroom with them¹.

• Fear pro-choice people because they believe in “post-birth abortions”. (In case you don’t know, a “post-birth abortion” is more commonly called “a school shooting”).

• Fear Kamala Harris because “she is for they/them, I am for you”². Not to mention fearing all black women.

• Fear NIH/CDC/FDA because they will make you take vaccines, and vaccines will kill you.

• Fear the Democratic Party, because its members will make your life even more unaffordable, and because they don’t understand the solution is tariffs that China will pay.

I’m sure you can add to this list.

Many people are apoplectic about what the new fascist regime will do.

I believe they will try to do all sorts of things, and the operative word is “try”.

An aside about “trying”. I love cookies. I have never made a secret of this. I have my favourites, and some I am less of a fan of, but cookies!!! YUM!!! I would like to be able to successfully bake cookies, and I have tried. I have tried MANY TIMES³. And I have always been unsuccessful⁴. It turns out that no matter how many videos I watch, no matter how many people try to help me, “cream the butter and the sugar” escapes my abilities. Friends and family endeavor to console me by pointing out that I can do other things.

Family is coming over for Channukah this year. When we host, everyone always offers to bring dessert, or lobbies to at least let my husband make the dessert⁵. Their faces scrunch up if I say I’m even going to try. I cook really well, and everyone always prefers that I stay in my lane. There is a level of fear of having to try something I baked. And yes, it’s legitimate⁶.

Some fears ARE legitimate, but it’s important to prepare. The preparation should take precedence over the fear. The fear will paralyze.

The fear of the fascists is a fear of the future, but no one really knows what the future holds. Who would have thought in November of 2024 that in the first week in December, a group of determined rebels would have felled the Assad regime in Syria? Who had that on their bingo card? No one saw it coming, except the rebels, who evaluated the situation, prepared, planned, and struck. You might argue that they’ve been at this since the Arab spring, so there were 13 years of darkness, death and hell - but in the end, they triumphed and in so doing changed the whole political landscape of the Middle East (along with Russia and Turkey)⁷.

Many people are concerned about whether they will be able to keep their jobs, what will happen with their 401(k)s, IRAs, 529s, and other holdings, and how bad inflation will get in the face of the tariffs. We do not know. But there are ways to prepare.

Will people lose their jobs? Yes. Will you lose your job? Maybe. Is it the end of your life? Only if you want it to be. I lost my job in the Great Recession in 2009, and couldn’t find a job for 16 months. Not for lack of trying. To stay afloat, I relied on unemployment and the Federal government (thank you President Obama) for paying part of my COBRA. With unemployment here in PA, you can make a minimal amount of money every week and still keep your unemployment check. So, I did one-offs⁸, and signed up with every temp agency in the area to do things like be a receptionist for a day, type invoices for a day, anything they offered, I took. In addition, being between marriages, I took in a roommate to help defray costs. I avoid being fearful about losing my job because I’ve been through it before and know it’s surmountable. If you have never lost a job, perhaps there is that fear of the unknown, but it really is survivable⁹.

The current logic from most financial planners is that if you know for sure that you will need new appliances, electronics or cars in 2025, buy them before 20 January, because they’ll cost you less.

Statistically, 62% of Americans have money invested in the stock market. What you do with your financial assets depends, in large part, on your age. If you’re young, even if the market tanks next year, the market will recover. If you are older, and need to live off your savings, talk to a financial planner about the best placement of your assets. We live in a corporatist (not a capitalist) society - the market ALWAYS recovers¹⁰. Fear is paralyzing, position yourself as best you can.

Will the tariffs cause prices to rise? Absolutely. As I’ve written before, I hope they hit quickly and hard. Like pulling off the bandage all at once. The sooner the populace, especially MAGA, sees the problem, the sooner we can organize in a way that ousts the Rethuglicans out of elected office¹¹.

Quit Being Fearful

I know, easier said than done. But this:

“I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our people impel. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” (Emphasis mine.)

The quote above is from FDR’s 1933 Inaugural Address. It was the depths of the Depression, unemployment was almost 25%, people lucky enough to keep their jobs had seen wages fall by more than 40%, banks failed, farms failed. Link. Things were much more bleak than they are today.

Fear paralyzes, as President Roosevelt said. Changing one’s mindset from “fear” to “determination” is something that will help us, help our kids and grandkids, help America.

WE MUST CONVERT RETREAT INTO ADVANCE, NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS.

I leave you with two things. First my very favourite quote of all time:

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead.

And this, from the 1956 film The King and I:

1. I have never been able to make sense of this, so I’m unclear what could happen, but it was certainly out there.

2. That’s from a tv commercial that played ad infinitum in my area.

3. I have tried to bake cookies literally hundreds of times over the past 40 years.

4. My baking disasters cover not only cookies, but bread, cakes, pies, and everything else I’ve ever attempted. Most end up being science experiments. It took me over TEN YEARS of trying to successfully bake a pan of Pillsbury crescent rolls. There is a photo of me taken with my first pan of crescents that came out okay and the look on my face is one of utter shock. I can make Pillsbury crescent rolls now, and am working up to other Pillsbury products, but it’s not really baking.

5. My husband is a GREAT baker.

6. They are ALL prepared (they think I don’t know) - the whole family has practiced saying “Oh, I’m so stuffed from dinner, I couldn’t possibly eat dessert” with straight faces.

7. In this anecdote, WE are the rebels.

8. I tested printers for $50, and sneakers for $100, jobs I found on Craigs List.

9. If you have a strong reason to fear losing your job: get your resume up to date, make sure you have contact information NOT on your work computer of potential references and people who can help give you leads, look at your outgo every month, and see if you can cut subscriptions, eating out, entertainment, anything outside your nut to help be prepared.

10. As an older person who has lived through huge downturns, back in the day, when statements were mailed in lieu of being online, I found that not opening the statements, and throwing them directly into a roaring fire in the fireplace was a good solution.

11. I’m talking ELECTIONS here. We need to win elections to affect the changes we need and want.