Yes the end of summer is upon us, the beginning of the election season, when many look to their government and asses how they have been handling things, as they try to decide who will do the best for them and their family, and usher in new hope for peace and prosperity for the coming years ahead. The positive ads are out there, look at me I'm for you, I can do this and that for you, but under the surface are the undercurrents of fear and hate that seem to be creeping into our election cycles more and more. first there's the angry letters in the local papers, then the right wing talk radio hosts (I'm a Democratic partisan here) and fox news guys getting angrier at this group and that group(please note that these are the same people who branded Dean the angry liberal). Now while the tension is high, like a goddamm piano wire, the fear factor comes in, liquid bombs, terror notes, pen guns like James Bond, terror every other word you hear, know thy enemy programs, and, let us not forget, let me repeat, let us not forget that back in 2004, there were terror alerts every time Kerry showed a lead in the polls, then months after the presidential election was over we had Thom Ridge saying he was told to do the terror alerts by the White House, even though he disagreed with them. A fact he shared with us as he was leaving his post as head of Homeland security, safely after the election was over.
Now we see the same pattern repeating itself as we approach the November elections. The question is will the American people fall for the same tactic, and yes I call it a tactic, and I do so because Tom Ridge had the balls to say the terror alerts of 2004 were not from him, but the White House. And boy, did they disappear after the election a fact we all have lived with.
It's in this sprit I present my latest cartoon, "homeland Fear Factor"
www.whatnowtoons.com