Unqualified Offerings

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

And when it has gone I will turn the inner eye

to see its path.

Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

A paper by Mark Landau and his colleagues, in 30 Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 1136 (2004), offers some intriguing clues. Here are two key findings. (a) After people are merely reminded of their own mortality (by being asked, for example, to describe “what you think will happen to you as you physically die and once you are physically dead”), they show stronger support for President Bush and his policies in Iraq. (b) After people are reminded of their mortality OR of the 9/11 attacks, they become more favorably disposed toward President Bush and less favorably disposed toward John Kerry.

The upshot is that any reminder of the terrorist threat is likely to help President Bush, and probably to help Republicans generally, even (and here is the important fact) to the extent of causing a shift in their direction among moderates and some liberals. It remains to be seen if Democratic leaders can cause a change in the underlying dynamics.

Glenn “Instapundit” Reynolds excitedly points to this terrorist plot and then claims that “some people” — he does not, of course, say who these “some people” are — “have decided that the war on terror is passe. But although you may not be interested in terrorism, terrorism is still interested in you.”

…And one popular right-wing blogger who writes anonymously behind the name “Ace of Spades,” actually insisted that this event all at once demonstrates the wisdom of warrantless eavesdropping by the National Security Agency, the Patriot Act, Guantánamo military tribunals and torture (only to then casually recant all of that once it was pointed out to him that it was British law enforcement agents, not Americans, who foiled the plot).

The White House is sure to follow suit any minute now… Each time a new plot is disclosed, administration officials and their followers immediately begin squeezing the emotions and fears generated by such events for every last drop of political gain they can manufacture.

“The al-Qaida types, they clearly are betting on the proposition that ultimately they can break the will of the American people in terms of our ability to stay in the fight and complete the task,” Cheney said in a telephone conference call with reporters on Wednesday from Jackson, Wyo…. Cheney said the Democrats’ embracing of Lamont and his position on Iraq after he won the primary showed that the party had become isolationist and unconcerned about terrorism.”And when we see the Democratic Party reject one of its own [Joe Lieberman], a man they selected to be their vice presidential nominee just a few short years ago,” Cheney said, “it would seem to say a lot about the state the party is in today if that’s becoming the dominant view of the Democratic Party.