An inter­est­ing piece on the President’s attempts to dom­i­nate by repeated admo­ni­tions of our help­less­ness, at Factesque:

Only a Trai­tor Wouldn’t Trust Dear Leader to Keep Us Safe. You’re Not a Trai­tor Are You?:

Bush is a mas­ter at induc­ing learned help­less­ness in the elec­torate. He
uses pes­simistic lan­guage that cre­ates fear and dis­ables peo­ple from
feel­ing they can solve their prob­lems. In his Sep­tem­ber 20, 2001, speech
to Con­gress on the ⁹⁄₁₁ attacks, he chose to increase people’s sense of
vul­ner­a­bil­ity: “Amer­i­cans should not expect one bat­tle, but a lengthy
cam­paign, unlike any other we have ever seen.… I ask you to live your
lives, and hug your chil­dren. I know many cit­i­zens have fears
tonight.… Be calm and res­olute, even in the face of a con­tin­u­ing
threat.” (Sub­se­quent ter­ror alerts by the FBI, CIA and Depart­ment of
Home­land Secu­rity have main­tained and expanded this fear of unknown,
sin­is­ter enemies.)