SOUND FAMILIAR?

From Murray Edelman, Constructing the Political Spectacle:

Those who favor a particular course of governmental action are likely to cast about for a widely feared problem to which to attach it in order to maximize its support. This process is not necessarily self-conscious or deceptive. Those who recognize that the attachment of a favored course of action to a problem will get them what they want can easily persuade themselves of the rationality and morality of their rhetorical appeals as part of the process of persuading others. (22, footnote omitted)