From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

The language of politics in an election year.

Hello again, I'm Norman Alley, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International,

a daily look at the issues Americans care about most.

National security

used to be a Republican issue, but this year both parties are using it in different ways. Democrats

want to talk about the war in Iraq. Republicans have escalated their rhetoric from terrorism

to what they call Islamo-fascism. On to the point, we'll talk with some of the pollsters and strategists to advise candidates

about the language they use to mobilize voters.

How does a single word or phrase reduce a complex set of facts to a single fable?

Is this year's election all about fear?

On reporters' notebook later on, churches, politics, and tax exemption.

First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica

and from the Public Radio International Program Fund,

whose contributors include the Ford Foundation and the John D.

and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Hello again, Mormon-Aulay, back with To the Point. National Security has been a Republican issue,

but this year the Democrats are using it too. They're focusing on the war in Iraq while the Republicans

are talking terror and Islamo-fascism. On To the Point, we'll look at the different language used by each party to

generate anger and fear. On reporter's notebook, politics and tax exemptions are not supposed to be

mixed. We'll hear about warnings to churches at both ends of the political spectrum. First,

...