Have you noticed that we live on a fear spectrum?
The spectrum runs from fear of Radical Islam on the political Right to fear of CO2 on the political Left. On neither end of the spectrum does the other side take the other's fear seriously. The Right considers Armageddon fears of CO2 (greenhouse gas) to be an anti-American political fantasy, and the Left considers the Right's fear of Radical Islam to be a fantasy to support corporate greed and American imperialism.
There are people in the middle of the spectrum that share both fears, fear of CO2 and Radical Islam.
The main point of this blog relates to an earlier blog where I pointed out that America is a "fear culture". There are family shame cultures, tribal shame cultures and several other cultural constructs. Fear is our core motivation. That is why we create fear in infants immediately after birth by leaving them to sleep alone at night and cry themselves to sleep. Shame cultures don't ever do that.
So we are a fear culture and we need common fears as an organizing principle.
That is why we have the spectrum of fear, from Radical Islam to CO2. That is also why the country is divided into the core Right-Left groups that have their own fears that do not include the other's fears.
I can't validate or invalidate these core fears. It would be irrelevant if I could. They would just be replaced by new fears, exactly as the current fears replaced the two earlier fears on our fear spectrum: Fear of Communism on the Right and fear of American Imperialism on the Left.