This is interesting, but doesn't feel like anything new, at least in retrospect. Fear is a well-worn tool in the conservative political playbook. Where this is

This is interesting, but doesn't feel like anything new, at least in retrospect. Fear is a well-worn tool in the conservative political playbook. Where this is interesting to me is in the possibility that fear generally drives a swing toward conservative attitudes, regardless of the alignment of the politician that wields it. In that case, left-leaning political campaigns could be self-sabotaging by engaging in dirty pool or attack ads. If this dynamic described in TFA is really repeatable, you might see a campaign that doesn't attack and just cranks up the optimism to 110%. Whether that's viable in this modern world is up for debate. There has definitely been an element of this at the core of the Obama, Sanders, and Clinton campaigns, but on the outskirts you continued to have attack ads and fearmongering over the GOP candidates (or over primary challengers).