Letter to the Editor: Debt ceiling fearmongering ‘works only if its target lets it’

The first principle of “make America great again” is to get and keep power. One of the obstacles in its path is the social safety net built up by the Democrats, highlighted by Social Security and Medicare. To destroy it, or at least weaken it, MAGA has been trying to prove that it is unaffordable at best and socialist at worst.

To build their case, followers have depended on the tried-and-true strategy of divide and conquer. To achieve this goal, they are using a variety of tools from the wannabe autocrat’s toolbox that we have become all too familiar with, including lies, disinformation, culture wars, voter suppression and fear, to name a few.

Let’s take a closer look at the tool du jour: fear.

MAGA realizes that depending on the ballot box to destroy the social safety net is not a sure-fire strategy, no matter how clever their voter suppression, deceptions and so forth. So it has decided to use blackmail.

They are using the so-called debt ceiling crisis to force the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives to choose between putting their safety net into the shredder and putting their country into default. The anxiety this is causing is palpable.

What they do not seem to realize is that fear works only if its target lets it. The Democratic leadership’s job now is to call MAGA’s bluff. On Nov. 5, 2024, MAGA will learn the hard way how America deals with bullies who care nothing for democracy.

Frederick Longacre

Hockessin