This week, Trump delivered a speech on immigration that depicted outsiders as a frightening threat. Its ebbs and flows through American political history have pulled on elections, reordering and destabilizing the electoral landscape. But fear is not the same as anger it is a unique political force.

And if Trump still stands a chance to win in November, fear could be the key.įear and anger are often cited in tandem as the sources of Trump’s particular political appeal, so frequently paired that they become a refrain: fear and anger, anger and fear. More than most politicians, he grasps and channels the fear coursing through the electorate. Trump is a master of fear, invoking it in concrete and abstract ways, summoning and validating it. Overall crime rates may be down, but a sense of disorder is constant.įear pervades Americans’ lives-and American politics. Protests have shut down large cities repeatedly, and some have turned violent. Every week seems to bring a new large- or small-scale terrorist attack, at home or abroad. Americans are more afraid today than they have been in a long time: Polls show majorities of Americans worried about being victims of terrorism and crime, numbers that have surged over the past year to highs not seen for more than a decade. People are scared,” Donald Trump said recently, and he was not wrong.įear is in the air, and fear is surging.

How to install afraid of monsters