i m a publik scewl teechur. I teach both English and history. My US government book is filled with liberal bs. It mentions “founders” not “founding fathers”, and it also refers to the Constitution as a “living document” and “an evolving document.” My senior English textbook has The Crucible in it, and the side notes want me to point out similarities between witch hunting and Joe McCarthy.
In the Crucible there were genuine witches. Whether their spells had any effect was a moot point, they stripped naked and danced in the woods.
In the 1920s-up in America there have been Communists. Communists who preferred to give loyalty to Mother Russia, the USSR, and Uncle Joe Stalin over the United States.
This is not a “Red Scare”. If it is then George Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984 are also both “Red Scare” anti-Communist propaganda.
Orwell was a Socialist until he closely observed how the Socialists were quite critical of the US and UK (even during WWII) but would never say a critical word of Stalin or the USSR. All animals are equal. Some are more equal than others.
Let's skip over McCarthy for now.
So in the Crucible there are witches made to go on the stand and “out” other witches. We are told that this is dangerous to our society, to compel someone under investigation to snitch on the others. Especially when the hearsay evidence they present is not concrete enough to secure a criminal conviction.
So flash forward to this year. And Congressional hearings into steroid use in professional baseball. Do you now or did you ever take human growth hormone? The questioning of Roger Clemens was brought on by the testimony of another player. And the line of questioning was of the sort “he claims to have spoken to you in 2000 or 2001... in THAT conversation from 2000 OR 2001 did you ever mention...”
Which conversation? THE one in 2000? Or THE one in 2001? Or maybe they had more than 2 conversations in two years time?
So the dirty little secret is that the Communists of the 1950s saw no harm in BEING a Communist, even with some of the fellow travelers giving secrets to the atomic bomb to Mother Russia and plunging us into a costly and nearly deadly 45 year Cold War.
The witches in The Crucible should’ve been permitted to be witches and the Communists should have been permitted to be Communists.
Now a Democrat in California wants to lift the legal prohibition on known Communists from serving in California's public schools. So the Naked Communists will have nothing to fear. Still don't think that they want to advance an extremist agenda?
Another witchhunt show trial to discuss in class. The persecution of Tom DeLay. 2 years later his case still has not come to trial and I think Ronnie Earle has stepped down. But the goal of getting DeLay out of office has been achieved and Democrat takeover of the Congress accomplished.