Clarion Fund: Pro-McCain Non-profit Group Fueling Politics of Fear
Anti-Islam Documentary Being Distributed on September 11 Anniversary
The Clarion Fund is a 501 c(3) non-profit organization that apparently supports Senator John McCain for president. Why "apparently"? The Clarion Fund is responsible for paying newspapers around the United States to distribute an anti-Islam documentary as a supplement to their Sunday editions. The Huffington Post reports that the Clarion Fund has sent 28 million DVDs to at least 70 newspapers in swing states to place at the doorstep of newspaper subscribers. The Huffington Post also calls the Clarion Fund "shadowy," because the non-profit organization's financial backers are unknown.
The DVD is a 60-minute expose of militant Islam called "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West" and is ideologically slanted toward painting Muslims as evil and bent on the destruction of the United States. It was nationally premiered on Fox News during the 2006 mid-term elections. Labeled highly divisive by many mainstream religious groups, "Obsession" shows Islam as a radically dangerous religion bent on the destruction of Western civilization, interspersing incendiary commentary with images of Nazis and suicide bombing indoctrination.
You might not agree with Senator Barack Obama's political ideology, but a point he has brought up in the past several weeks is not only relevant to this issue but a blatant truth as well. At several speeches Senator Obama has made mention of the Republican propensity to play distraction games during the campaigns and elections. Obama speaks directly to the GOP tactic of fearmongering, or the politics of fear.
It seems that Republicans have a lock on national security. Why is that? According to Norman Solomon, author of War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us To Death, Democratic presidents have been just as likely to go to war or promote a military conflict as Republican presidents. So why are the Republicans seen as more hawkish?
Simply because they bill themselves as such and press the point again and again that the Democrats are weak on national defense and national security. Just because it is not an actual truth does not mean that people do not believe it as truth. Perception is everything and it is a basic truth that GOP and Republican spin doctors, campaign managers and strategists have used to their great advantage in past elections. It was used to destroy John Kerry's lead in the polls leading into the national election in 2004, pushing the idea that John Kerry was soft on defense, that he believed in a "cut-and-run" policy in Iraq, that terrorists were just waiting for someone like Kerry to be elected, and that it was dangerous to change presidents in the midst of a war.
In 2008, the same tactics are being used. The latest of those tactics is the "Obsession" DVD.
A CNN poll released on September 11 showed McCain with a 62% -34% lead over Obama as to whom Americans believe would be best suited to handle terrorism.
The United States has been attacked by terrorists only a few times in its history. The last instance was on September 11, 2001. But since September 11, 2001 the American government, led by the Bush administration (that was elected primarily by raising the spectre of the fear of terrorism and being stronger on defense), the same people who responded to the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks with a war on Afghanistan and a war on Iraq, has done nearly nothing with regard to domestic defense measures except to marginally increase airport security and restructure the various intelligence agencies.
Campaign tactics like those used by the Clarion Fund are meant to appeal to fears of the voters. It is meant to appeal to an emotional level. In psychological terms, this might precipitate a fight or flight response. With no direct threat of immediate personal harm, the fight response will most likely prevail. Add to this the public perception that the Republican Party handles defense issues better than Democrats, it is not too difficult to understand how the Republicans win elections.
Nor is it a coincidence that the distribution of these incendiary DVDs are being bundled with newspapers on the weekend following the seventh anniversary of the September 11 tragedy.
Fear is the strongest motivator of human action. The perception of security from that fear will have a very strong influence on the way an individual votes. The Clarion Fund is employing that motivator in swing states to potentially bring those states into the Republican fold and deliver to John McCain the electoral votes needed to become the next president.
To some, like the Clarion Fund, the truth may be irrelevant. Getting the candidate of their choice elected is all that matters.
Published by Saul Relative
WVU graduate, with degrees in History, English, Secondary Education, Computer Programming, and Psychology (and nearly a degree in Political Science). Originally from West Virginia, with stints in Virginia,... View profile
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96 Comments
Post a CommentI believe that most people out there are missing the important points regarding the documentary Obsession. First the film clearly points out in the beginning that this film only concerns a minority of Muslims that subscribe to a radical and fundamentalist view of Islam, and actually points out that the vast majority of Muslims are not only peaceful, they are just as much at risk than the rest of the world. Secondly, Obsession is not fear mongering, when it's using actual film footage of the rallies of these radical fundamentalists calling for the death of America and Israel. It can not be classified fear mongering, when you are merely seeing what this radical group says in their rallies to their followers...you are simply reporting the facts! Fear mongering would be reporting speculative information. The rallies shown in Obsession are hardly speculative...they are fact. Lastly, I'm sick and tired of all the blame being placed on Israel. Israel has been trying to negotiate peace
It's amazing how short our memories of history are these days. How many Christians and non-Christians died at the hand of other Christians throughout the ages. Reformation, counter Reformation, Inquisitions, the list goes on. How would you like to be a Christian today and have all that hanging around your neck and your religion? It's preposterous of course. And the same goes for Radical Islam folks. Who do you think they're killing today? A few Americans and foreigners but mostly other Muslims in countries other than our own. They, my friends, are the biggest victims of both Radical Islam and "Radical American Politics". How many innocent Iraqis have died at our hands? The number dwarfs our losses by an embarrassing magnitude. I'm all for war on terrorism and so are the majority of Muslims in this and other countries. We just need to be careful of supporting despots who tarnish our reputation and make sure we never get another idiot in the White House. Thank God Obama has
We have our own Christian extremists. Of course, they haven't resorted to a Jihad - yet. At the risk of sounding anti-religious it seems clear that religion can be very dangerous. In our time there seems to be a fundamentalist movement worldwide. We need more voices promoting tolerance and restraint. Just today a well-known female politician who finds her relection a little less certain than she would like decided to put out an advertisement that calls her opponent Godless. What is that an attempt to do? No politician in America today can openly seek office unless they profess belief. Thomas Jefferson would be very annoyed by this. The Republican Party seems to have tried to appropriate God for themselves - patriotism also. This movie is an attempt to scare you into voting for the guy shot down over Vietnam. Not all Christians are fundamentalist nor are all Muslims. We should not be pursuaded to fight a holy war.
I saw the movie and it is more a propaganda that employs real events to suit ulterior motives of the zionists. Consider this: Israel employs uncontrolled TERRORISM against defenseless Palestinians with the help of the US via weapons, money & protection in UN. Palestinians have their own 911s on almost a daily basis. Videos shown in this movie are ones captured when innocent people are bombed and massive destruction is caused to entire neighborhoods. Again these are actual (true) clips, BUT it is patently FALSE to insinuate that these are people that hate the West senselessly.
It is very sad to see that the zionists have shown clearly again and again that America should use it's blood & treasure to fight it's wars. Nothing will make Israel more happy than for US to now invade Iran and then perhaps Saudi etc. It is imperative that true Americans wake up to this real terrorism and win our great country back. For more information, please visit www.ifamericanskew.org
FOR THOSE OF YOU IGNORANT PEOPLE WHO THINK THAT WHEN YOU SPEAK UP AGAINST A HATEFUL OR PERVERTED IDEOLOGY, I HAVE SEEN THE PRODUCTION AND NOWHERE DOES IT IMPLY OR PROVE THAT ALL MUSLIMS SUBSCRIBE TO RADICAL VIEWS. IT DOES HOWEVER POINT OUT THE PERVERTED VIEW OF OVER 100 MILLION MEMBERS OF THAT RELIGION. TOLERANCE OF THOSE INDIVIDUALS CAN ONLY LEAD TO DESTRUCTION
SO I GUESS THAT MAKES IT RIGHT AND JUSTIFIED. WE'VE COME SO FAR IN OUR CIVILIZATION ONLY TO PLAY STUPID AND ALLOW OUR POLITICAL CORRECTNESS TO BE OUR UTTER DESTRUCTION.
Um....do you remember from your history class things like "The Crusades" and "The Inquisition"? I'd call both of those terrorism on a grand scale. The origins of terrorism go waaayyyy back, and Muslims are certainly NOT the only perpetrators!
This is a Jewish organization spreading hate about Muslims. People, this is hypocricy at its highest level. They will bring up their persecutions and then spend millions to do it to another group. Pitiful. Then they wonder why the whole Middle East and the majority of Europeans hate them.
I hate to burst the bubble of those that think Obama is just going to go in and fix everything. He may have a good talk and make you feel good, but with how everything is going now do you think he is going to just fix everything over night? Do you also believe that Bush is the one that screwed everything up? Well your wrong there too. The senate and house should probably get a lot more blame for everything that has happened with the economy. The Democrats want to just point the finger to the Repbulicans or just directly to Bush. They are to blame just as much or more so. Also I happened to look at this DVD "Obsession" last night. Let me just first say it was eye opening. It also mentioned at the beginning of the disc that there are "good Muslims in the world; this disc is not about those people". Which basically is saying right up front that all Muslims are not bad. It is the same way in the world. Most people are generally good, but there is obviously a lot of evil int he world. Do yo
read about the crusades, its all about radical christians