Alex Castellanos, a Republican media consultant, confided to an assembly of Harvard students last Friday that fear, or rather the constant invocation of fear, is a necessity in modern politics.

Naming references to 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina as prime examples of effective scare tactics, Castellanos argued that America “needs more fear in politics” and that this strategy has been utilized by Republicans and Democrats alike for decades.

That’s right – even Obama did it during his campaign. Every time he attempted to convince Americans that John McCain was “another” George W. Bush, he was using Bush-fear to dissuade us from voting for McCain.

The Crimson reports:

Attendee Andrew Velo-Arias ’11 voiced his agreement with Catellanos, saying that fear tactics in a campaign are only effective if they are not discovered as what they are.

“If you get to the point where you are detached to describe it as fear, then it’s not very effective,” he said. “But an attack that works is not an attack at all, it’s a hard hitting issues ad about your opponents records of shame.”

[…] “One of the reasons why Cuban Americans generally vote Republican is there’s a fear of big government and fear of change,” he said. “That’s something they played on a lot back home in Miami to the Cuban American community.”

Wait – Cubans vote for Republicans, yet they fear big government? Does not compute.

Whether or not you agree with the wanton use of fear, it is effective. However, if the usage continues to grow, expect to be living an George Orwellian world in the very near future.