[gitmo]

Thanks.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

End of Chapter 5, on page 93:

In 1954, critic Leslie Fieldler captured the essence of "McCarthyism":"From one end of the country to another rings the cry, 'I am cowed! I am afraid to speak out!', and the even louder response, 'Look, he is cowed! He is afraid to speak out!'"

The only actual example which comes to mind of an American journalist admitting to having actually been cowed is The News We (CNN) Kept To Ourselves [must read]. But then, CNN wasn't dealing with a Republican senator but with Saddam Hussain--and CNN wasn't talking about it until he had been deposed!

It puts me in mind of the comedian Herb Shriner, who I loved to hear on black-and-white TV. The one story of his that sticks with me is how

My sister met a man once in the lobby of a hotel and he handed her a note saying,

'You are the only woman I have ever loved.
Please come to me in room 103.'

She wasn't sure it was sincere, though--it was mimeographed!

The message denies itself. The more contemporaneous claims of being "cowed" were published, the more plain it is that those actually "cowed into silence" were--no one at all.
And that the only one being unfairly persecuted in the whole operation was--Joe McCarthy.