BookTV (C-Span2): "Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy"

BookTV (C-Span2 weekends) ^ | 11-22-27 | unlisted

[kitkat]

VERY WELL SAID! Thank you.

[IronJack]

The worm is turning. Nowadays, with the internet and its access to unfiltered information, many hard-wired views of history are going to be threatened. The McCarthy story is just one of them, and it is going to slowly reveal that Joe McCarthy, all his faults notwithstanding, was a powerful force against America’s enemies, and that he was right a lot more than he was wrong.

[VOA]

Bump for publicity (taken betweeen stirring the gravy)!

And for everyone bumping in and/or commenting

[Fiji Hill]

McCarthy investigated un-American activities as chairman of the Senate Committee on Government Operations, and his tenure as chairman lasted only two years. However, it is widely but erroneously believed that McCarthy chaired the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC)—despite the fact that he was a Senator. In reality, HUAC was chaired by John S. Wood (D-Ga.), Harold H. Velde (R-Ill.), and Francis E. Walter (D-Pa.) during the so-called “McCarthy era” (1950-1957).

[VOA]

However, it is widely but erroneously believed that McCarthy chaired
the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC)—despite the
fact that he was a Senator.

Yep. A very common error even with fairly smart folks.

It was interesting to see Evans correct the once member of the
audience who did seem to be aware of the difference.

I couldn't really blame the questioner...even at private schools,
that difference probably isn't pointed out to the kids...
whose parents are paying $20K-$30K/year to get their beloved
children "educated".

[Anti-Bubba182]

Thanks for the heads up. It was very informative!

[padre35]

Exactly, every organ of Information or Entertainment has been thoroughly penetrated by Communism “Lite”.

Funny thing is that the American People are abandoning those streams of information en masse in favor of the ‘Net and perhaps talk radio.

Can you imagine a Tailgunner Joe today with the Internet?

[VOA]

My pleasure. I was too busy AND slothful to post a notice when it
aired last weekend.

One well-meaning Freeper took me to task when I was warning Freepers
in a previous BookTV notice that if they randomly tuned into BookTV,
they might get their retinas fried by some Code Pink event or similar
outrage.

BUT, I give BookTV credit...they cover the spectrum and do a good job
of covering the political spectrum.
I doubt I could do a much better job of balancing the coverage.
(even if I would complain about some weekends that do lean to the left
side of the political spectrum)

[Paperdoll]

Thank you for that correction. It was, as you know, over 50 years ago. :)

[FReepapalooza]

“Can you imagine a Tailgunner Joe today with the Internet?”

It would be a welcome sight to behold, indeed!

[LibFreeOrDie]

Even PBS had to admit that there were Communist spies operating in America. The “Secret Victories of the KGB” episode of their “Red Files” series (1999) provides details:

http://www.pbs.org/redfiles/kgb/index.htm

[ru4liberty]

Thank you so much for posting this reminder. That was very educational. Thank God we’re living in a time when there are so many ways to disseminate information. I know it really chaps the left to have all their lies exposed.

[nathanbedford]

Once upon a Time in America the great divide in our society was expressed by where you stood on Joe McCarthy. Of course, that was all wrapped up with Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss and which one of those two you believed. Did you think the Rosenbergs were guilty? The answer to that question told everyone whether you were a Democrat or a Republican.

The other American dramas I can invoke to describe the hold the Army -McCarthy hearings had on the nation are the OJ Simpson trial and the Clarence Thomas hearings. I can remember as a boy coming home from school and finding my mother transfixed before a black-and-white television over the Army McCarthy hearings. In our house we believed McCarthy, and Chambers, and we thought that the Rosenbergs were certainly guilty. But this was not the universal opinion of suburbia and certainly not the politically correct version to which I was exposed to in school which was connected to a university.

The impact of McCarthy was not limited to the era which bears his name. In subsequent years in college I learned that my parents must have been real Neanderthals to believe the way they did. Most of this was imparted to me by my professors through innuendo; we quickly absorbed the culture of the University and knew what sort of opinions were acceptable and which were not acceptable to express in learned company.

Today the term "McCarthyism" has assumed a meaning which contains its own DNA and expresses a whole left-wing point of view. We see the same thing now happening with the phrase, "Swift boating." These phrases have been turned on their head by a consensus in academia and in the media which simply ignores any other interpretation of events except the one favoring the left.

McCarthy was connected to Chambers who was connected to Nixon. If the left was irrational in its support of Alger Hiss, it was almost psychotic in its hatred of Richard Nixon. There was a chain of events that led to the impeachment of Richard Nixon for actions that had mostly been done already by previous Democrat presidents. What I find so fascinating so many years later is the question, why was the left so irrational, so emotional in its judgments about the Communists and the anti-Communists? Why was the left so purblind to Communists in high places where they could mortally wound the nation and so viscerally obsessed about the men like McCarthy, Chambers, and Nixon who exposed them?

Why, for example, was President Truman so indifferent to the evidence of Communists in the State Department? Perhaps Truman's inertia can be explained by his parochial Midwestern background, his naïveté, his partisanship, his ignorance of the lay of the land on the day he assumed office. But Roosevelt's involvement was more than indifference. It strikes me that Roosevelt was almost the model of the patrician who sees himself as larger than his own country. John Kerry, of Swift boat fame, seems to be cast in the same mold, although without Roosevelt's political acumen.

Do men of great wealth like George Soros or Franklin Roosevelt regard the concept of national sovereignty to be merely the outmoded belief systems of the masses, akin to the belief in God which provide some comfort and meaning to their lives, but which is outmoded and not particularly useful in the grand games played for world stakes. Just a thought, but one prompted by knowledge that the financial backer of THE FRANKFURT SCHOOL was also a man of great wealth who founded the school which has done so much damage to our culture. The school was founded for the express purpose of breaking down those institutions which frustrated the victory of communism.

Roosevelt must have known that there were Communists in his government. His vice president was virtually an avowed communist. I believe he just didn't care. Either he was so arrogant that he believed he could control events even as he was being undermined by a fifth column, or, more likely, he didn't care because he didn't think it mattered when viewed from the exalted perspective of his world.

George Soros does not care what passport he holds except as it advances his interests. Patricians in general do not see the world as contained and defined by national boundaries but by markets, routes, and centers of supply and demand.

McCarthyism, like Swift boating, has been distorted and twisted into a widely accepted definition by political correctness. Political correctness is the explicitly contrived belief system created by THE FRANKFURT SCHOOL. The Frankfurt school was founded by a character who could change skins with George Soros and each could live comfortably in the other's century. They view the rest of us as impediments or useful idiots.

They could be right. The useful idiots enforce the rules of political correctness and obligingly define against the weight of history the meaning of phrases like, " McCarthyism" or, "Swift boating." I for one choose to count myself among the impediment class.

[Enchante]

“The McCarthy Era” is not what we’ve all been told it was:

http://www.nytimes.com/specials/magazine4/articles/mccarthy.html

[Enchante]

On a serious note (unlike my post above), Joe McCarthy was RIGHT about many things: extensive subversion and treason going unnoticed and unchallenged by many agencies in the US government, communists and ardent fellow-travellers allowed to function as severe security risks, Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs, etc. represented the tip of the iceberg and not the end of the problem, etc. Joe McCarthy has been horribly smeared by the very liberals who pretend they are all against character assassination, etc. The entire history of that era needs to be re-analyzed and re-written, as the charlatans of the left have propagandized us for 50+ years with lies about communism, liberalism, McCarthy, etc.

[LucyT]

Backhoe’s reference list with lots of links.
Thanks backhoe.

“Tailgunner Joe—Where Have You Gone, Joe McCarthy?”

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/935830/posts

[fieldmarshaldj]

"Roosevelt must have known that there were Communists in his government. His vice president was virtually an avowed communist."

Just to clarify that it was his 2nd (1941-45) VP, Henry Wallace, that was a Soviet sympathizer. His first was Cactus Jack Garner, an old-line Texas Tory Conservative. The Dems knew what a risk Wallace was, and it was the reason they had him bumped down to Ag Sec after 1944. Can you imagine had Wallace instead of Truman ended up as President ? Wallace probably would've sent the plans for the A-bomb in an Easter card to Stalin and wouldn't have thought he was doing anything wrong !

[nathanbedford]

Yup, I meant Wallace.

I think it is revealing that the objection to Wallace was not his ideology so much as the fact that he was a drag on the ticket.

These new dealers just didn't see anything wrong with communism whether they were in the governments or writing for the New York Times about the Ukrainian genocide.

[backhoe]

“Backhoe’s reference list with lots of links.
Thanks backhoe.

“Tailgunner Joe—Where Have You Gone, Joe McCarthy?”

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/935830/posts “

I appreciate your remembering that old, old post.

[driftless2]

"deep and abiding affection"

That "deep and abiding affection" only runs deep around Madison. The rest of the state, except for a few areas in Milwaukee, is far to the right of the wackos around the capital. Wisconsin is a state where even a large percentage of Dems are hunters and gun lovers. Don't mistake Madison for the rest of the state.