Stop Campaigning on Terrorism

How do I know? All frequent fliers know it, and many of them will actually engage in conversation about it. I won’t go into detail about the many times since 9/11/01 (including in the last year) I’ve not only passed through security with “contraband” such as sharp objects and large bottles of flammable liquids—aka tweezers, nail clippers, scissors, nail polish remover, and copious hair gels and sprays—but also successfully boarded airplanes with these in my carry-on baggage. (You can gauge an eye out with a good pair of tweezers, I imagine.) Security my ass!

Yes, cleverly (or at least insidiously) our current Bush/Cheney regime has successfully molded our government into a fear-mongering machine that’s done a pretty good job of keeping us all in line. And we, the citizens, have by and large let them. So who are the real terrorists? Whether you’re a believer in the Loose Change 911 conspiracy view of the September 11 attacks or take what happened that day at face value, there’s no denying by now that we are our own worst enemy. Or at least, those we’ve sleepily elected to lead us are.

Why keep people in a state of fear? How better to control them? Yet with every passing year of “orange threat level” airport announcements (does anyone still hear them? better yet does anyone still believe them? I just laugh) not backed up by any verifiable orange threats, the credibility of the politics of fear suffers. Americans are not being duped anymore and it’s time for the presidential candidates campaigning on terrorism to recognize this fact, get a platform, and address the real issues. Take a lesson from Ron Paul or Al Gore and stop addressing the symptoms; reach for a cure.

Real issues such as what Floridians are truly concerned about. Indulge me, a Floridian, by letting me sum it up: 1) Healthcare (we have droves of elderly, like you Senator McCain, living down here on fixed incomes) 2) Adjustable rate mortgages forcing foreclosures 3) Our tanking real estate market 4) Hurricanes and their flipside, drought 5) Rising property taxes and homeowners insurance and 6) Education (we still have a teacher shortage state-wide). Do you see Islamic extremist groups on that list? Me neither.