The fear factor in the Republican presidential debate

If you tuned in to the Republican presidential debate on Tuesday evening, you’ll know that the candidates think America faces a grievous threat from the so-called Islamic State.

“We must deal frontally with this threat of radical Islamists, especially from ISIS,” said Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. “This is the most sophisticated terror group that has ever threatened the world or the United States of America.”

“We have people across this country who are scared to death,” added New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. “Because I could tell you this, as a former federal prosecutor, if a center for the developmentally disabled in San Bernardino, California, is now a target for terrorists, that means everywhere in America is a target for these terrorists.”

Most of the candidates agree on who is to blame, other than the extremists.

“The president has left us unsafe,” said Rubio. “He spoke the other night to the American people to reassure us. I wish he hadn't spoken at all. He made things worse. Because what he basically said was we are going to keep doing what we're doing now, and what we are doing now is not working.”

The word fear was only used once by the candidates in the entire debate, but Michael Crowley, senior foreign affairs correspondent for Politico, says fear “absolutely” seemed to hover over the whole thing.

“There’s a point at which you have to ask yourself, does it become irresponsible?'' Crowley says. "You know, are they going out of their way to try to frighten people? Which is what the terrorists are trying to achieve. The killing is meant to have a larger effect, which is to terrorize the population and to change our policies.”

Crowley says it makes sense in political terms.

“If you’re a Republican candidate trying to demonstrate your toughness in opposition to Barack Obama’s policies, to show that you’re a good Republican, you’re fighting Obama hard, you get why Obama is quote-unquote a failure, which I think is a message that particularly base Republican voters respond to.

"So rather than the complex work of proposing difficult policy solutions, what you can do is riff in an emotional way — that also makes for great soundbites the morning after the debate — about how much trouble Barack Obama has gotten us into, and how much jeopardy he’s put us into, and then cast yourself as the savior.”