Politics & Power Quote by James Bovard

Bovard’s line is built like an accusation and delivered like a warning label. The operative verb, “exploiting,” doesn’t imply confusion or even opportunism; it implies a deliberate strategy: fear isn’t an unfortunate byproduct of crisis politics, it’s the raw material. That word choice sets the moral frame before any evidence arrives, forcing the reader to treat “public fear” as something mined, processed, and sold back to citizens as policy.

The real payload sits in “redefine the relationship.” Bovard isn’t arguing about a single law, surveillance program, or emergency measure. He’s pointing to a structural shift: crises become permission slips to renegotiate the terms of citizenship. “Rulers” is the tell. In American civic language, leaders are supposed to be representatives, not sovereigns. By swapping in a monarchy-flavored noun, Bovard suggests the government is quietly switching roles while keeping the old branding. It’s rhetorical jujitsu: the phrase makes readers feel the democratic floorboards creaking.

Contextually, Bovard has long operated as a civil-liberties skeptic of state power, especially in the post-9/11 era when terrorism panic, and later other security-driven emergencies, helped normalize expanded policing, secrecy, and executive discretion. The sentence echoes a familiar pattern: fear gets elevated into a permanent condition, temporary measures become durable institutions, and the public is asked to trade agency for protection without fully noticing the exchange rate.

The intent isn’t to calm anyone down. It’s to puncture the comforting story that extraordinary power is always borrowed and always returned.