McCarthyism; History Repeats Itself

Vanity | Vanity

[tired&retired]

What will be the new name for false sexual allegations? What is happening now reminds me of McCarthyism.

Per Wiki, McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence.

The term refers to U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy and has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from 1947 to 1956 and characterized by heightened political repression as well as a campaign spreading fear of Communist influence on American institutions and of espionage by Soviet agents.

McCarthyism has taken on a broader meaning, describing the excesses of similar efforts. The term is also now used more generally to describe reckless, unsubstantiated accusations, as well as demagogic attacks on the character or patriotism of political adversaries.

During the McCarthy era, hundreds of Americans were accused of being communists or communist sympathizers and became the subject of aggressive investigations and questioning before government or private-industry panels, committees and agencies

[sauropod]

bkmk

[a fool in paradise]

No discussion of the Cold War is complete without investigating the Venona papers.

The Left refuses to acknowledge any collusion, coordination, or KGB motivation via front groups.

I check the index of books about the supposed witchhunt of Hollywood and if there is no reference to Venona (and authored subsequently to 1995), it’s worthless spin.

Textbooks need to include references. It’d be like covering the Watergate charges without the Nixon tapes or secret testimony from Deep Throat.

[867V309]

It seems all his accusers were loser leftists with an axe to grind, and the only physical evidence was fraudulent. But mental weaklings (Larry Elder is my favorite) and others, surrender to the left. They're lost to me.

[The Toad]

After Russia declassified and released Soviet spy documents back in the 1990’s, we now know that McCarthy was actually correct. The federal government actually did have scores of communist spies.

[a fool in paradise]

Critics on socialist networking media tried using the “racist” charge too. And the God(awful) Christian charge.

I didn’t dig deep into the claims, one that purported to have him “quoting Hitler” was the oft repeated remark about telling a lie often enough and people accept it as fact (just watch how the media does that).

[a fool in paradise]

Or am I confusing him with one of the judges Trump just folded on?

[Fiji Hill]

The term refers to U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy and has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from 1947 to 1956 and characterized by heightened political repression as well as a campaign spreading fear of Communist influence on American institutions and of espionage by Soviet agents.

There was no "heightened political repression" in this country unless you were a Soviet agent or a fellow traveler. And from what we now know, we shouldn't have been scared during the Second Red Scare--we should have been downright terrified. For more information on the era, I would recommend reading the following books:

• Andrew,Christopher, and Vasili Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield. (London: Penguin, 2009)

• Haynes, Johgn Earl, and Harvey Klehr, VENONA: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale, 1995)

• Klehr, Harvey, The Secret World of American Communism. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale, 1995)

• Sudoplatov, Pavel, Special Tasks. (Bston: Little, Brown, 1994)

• Trenear-Harvey, Glenmore S., Historical Dictionary of Atomic Espionage. (Lanham, Md.:, Scarecrow, 2011)

• Weinstein, Allen, The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America--The Stalin Era. (New York: Random House, 1999)

[Fiji Hill]

Here's another October surprise that you can add to the list.

In 1992, Bruce Herschensohn, an intellectual who is a solid conservative was running for a US Senate seat from California against Barbara Boxer. The Friday before Election Day, a report came out that Herschensohn was spotted at strip joints.

The timing of the story was suspect, and even if it was true it should not have made much of a difference-- Herschensohn had never raised moral issues of the sort in his campaign. But some "Christian conservatives" who called in to talk shows over the weekend ate it up and said they wouldn't vote for him because they now saw his alleged behavior as un-Christian, or something like that.

Barbara Boxer went on to narrowly win the election. And I assume the "Christian conservatives" who couldn't vote for a "sinner" like Bruce were happy with the result.

[a fool in paradise]

Right, in a number of these cases it is about convincing the GOP base to stay home.

They cannot compete in the arena of ideas and get people to vote for their policies. They have to lie about things like opposing same sex marriage and then after the elections claim they evolved on the issues.

[tired&retired]

Thank you for the list of books. I’m going to start with the two I ordered and then expand.

[otness_e]

Well, technically, McCarthy wasn’t actually involved in Hollywood’s blacklisting and crackdowns on Communist agitators (he was strictly focusing on stuff within the Senate’s jurisdiction. That’s also why we shouldn’t attribute HUAC to him either, since that falls under the House of Representatives), so even if Nancy Reagan was falsely accused, McCarthy wasn’t wrong about her since he was never even involved in her accusation in the first place.