How the right wins elections with moral panic

[madmusic]

All that matters right now is immigration. It is MOST important to the majority of the citizens. How do they shift attention from other issues to one of moral panic?

Panic builds up behind America's Great Wall
Andrew Sullivan

Call it the Great Wall of America. Last Wednesday, the Senate voted to add 370 miles of it to the US-Mexico border, together with another 500 miles of vehicle barriers. The vote wasn’t close: the wall passed by 83 votes to 16.
The House has already endorsed 700 miles of wall; and if President George Bush had used his primetime television address last Monday to endorse it, his ratings might have pulled out of their tailspin. (By the end of last week, Bush was endorsing a fence as well.) Maybe Karl Rove will set up a photo-op in October. The president could come to the Arizona border, assemble a crowd of anti-illegal immigrant activists and declaim, in reverse-Reagan mode: “Presidente Fox, build up this wall!”

In all the rhetoric and emotion and high-stakes politicking around a new immigration reform bill, two symbols have stood out. The first was the national anthem, translated into Spanish. It was a PR debacle for supporters of illegal immigrants. The second is the wall. It has become the rallying cry for those who believe that illegal immigration is hurting American workers, undermining the rule of law, compromising American sovereignty and endangering national security.


more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0%2C%2C29449-2189510%2C00.html

And The president could come to the Arizona border, assemble a crowd of anti-illegal immigrant activists and declaim, in reverse-Reagan mode: "Presidente Fox, build up this wall!"