How Will Fear Impact the Election?

Rick Klein: “This summer of discontent has added some new elements to the anger and angst that have dominated the election year. This is now a fearful nation – afraid not just about changing economic and demographic forces, but of our collective security. It’s a particular kind of fear, too – as much about the nation’s emotional health as about its physical or even political well-being.”

“It won’t take long to see how this impacts the campaign. The next 17 days will include two vice-presidential selections and the entirety of both conventions. Such choices and such moments have been based on a particular vision for the year, with both campaigns seeing a nation defined by its divisions. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have been playing to the parties’ respective bases, albeit in unique ways. This just might be the moment that changes all that, where a confluence of unpredictable political forces demands a new style of leadership – and new sets of choices along the way. Americans love to say they are united in the wake of national tragedies. Might there be a way to vote that way, too?”