Fear is a great motivator. It activates our fight or flight response and gets people to act in ways they wouldn't normally act. Someone who would normally sit on the sidelines and just watch the world change around them would be more apt to go out and vote for someone if they were afraid of something and that person offered a solution to that fear.

“A mistruth will make its way around the world, finding new lies to accompany it, before the truth even wakes up.”