Fear mongering

Why is it that people cannot seem to have an honest disagreement about issues, without falling back on insults and fear mongering? I was dropping my daughter off at school today, and heard an ad on the radio. The ad said something to the effect of "there are serious threats from Al Qaeda regarding attacks on US soil. The other candidates are focused on the environment and universal health care coverage. I am the only candidate who will make these threats the priority." He basically went on to say that all our problems will be solved if we simply get rid of illegal immigrants, arrest everyone who disagrees with him, and ignore any issue not related to terrorist threats. Hmmm. . .I think there's a word to describe this view. DICTATOR. And yet, there will be hundreds of people who fall behind this guy, simply because he makes them fearful. He's a waste of space. In fact, his views could perhaps be seen as threatening. So now who's the terrorist?