You can see it when athletes talk trash and try to get undisciplined opponents to foul out or get penalized. You can see it when ISIL publishes propaganda about the weakness and immorality of Western governments. And you can see it when Republican candidates for President stir up their voting base with ill-defined demands to step up the war against Islam.

It’s tough rhetoric, but it serves only to bait the opposition and inspire fear. It has no strategic value, except to stir up anger toward a broadly defined enemy, to inspire the kind of prejudice that feeds anxiety and the need to strike back.

In an election year we accept that the opposition party is playing its role as agitator, creating the unrest and uncertainty that wins them votes. Americans want quick answers to terrorism and wish for a world where a few well-place bombs can eliminate a threat. But this is the essence of demagoguery, baiting for votes.

Of course we feel anxious when two unsuspected Muslim citizens suddenly lash out and kill fourteen innocent people. There is no predicting the sudden outbursts of terror like this. It has the hallmarks of insanity. You feel like your neighbors could be psychopaths. That’s why we call it “terror.”

To use that fear to harvest votes for the Presidential nomination is unconscionable. It arouses suspicion, prejudice and hate to the level of hysteria. No elected office is worth the price of this fear-mongering. You can be critical of the administration without working citizens into a froth about immigrants and using the word “Islamic” to name the enemy.

America has to be strategic at this moment, not blindly swinging like a drunk in a barroom brawl. Not looking for the closest victim to attack, instead of gathering allies against the real enemy. This is a war like no other, but we could have learned something from the first blundering into Iraq seeking weapons of mass destruction. You don’t shoot first and ask questions later. That’s for Dirty Harry and Dick Cheney.

Fear-baiting ought to be condemned and dismissed as a campaign strategy. It’s deceitful, unethical, and unpatriotic.