LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Politicians’ manufactured crises work to control populace

OPINION:

I wholeheartedly agree with your Dec. 30 editorial, “Troublemakers in the White House.” There is nothing more useful to professional politicians than a crisis. If a real crisis pops up, fine. But an imagined or manufactured crisis will do in a pinch. There is no better way to herd the populace in a desired direction than to frighten it.

While the Obama administration certainly enjoys a good crisis to move its agenda, there is nothing new in this. As the 20th-century journalist H.L. Mencken wrote in 1918, “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.” Politicians learned long ago the value of scaring the public.

STEVE BRADLEY

McLean, Virginia