[Poohbah]

McCarthy advanced anticommunism because, among other things, it was his rhetoric which defeated over a dozen New Dealers in the 1952 election.

How many more did he get re-elected because he made anticommunists look like flaming nutcases?

Also, kindly note that he "discovered" anti-communism because he was in political hot water for defending members of Kampfgruppe Peiper. Seems that most American voters don't cotton to their Senators supporting people who massacre unarmed POWs.

[DPB101]

Lol...McCarthy was a Nazi! Yes, comrade, that is the official line. One which keeps being repeated no matter how many people explain what the SS story was all about.

Think I'll pass bothering to type it all out again. You know the story I am sure.

Liberals thought McCarthy damaged them.

Treason page 119:

( The Liberal) passion of hate for McCarthy had only one cause, candidly explained by Hubert Humphrey:" McCarthy's real threat to American democracy (was) the fact the he has immobilized the liberal movement." So they created a hobgoblin for the masses to fear. . .

Read this to get a taste of what McCarthy was fighting.

[decimon]

How many more did he get re-elected because he made anticommunists look like flaming nutcases?

I agree. I was young at the time (born 1945) but I recall some of the nutjobs who were feeling their oats at that time. Anything not straight from the JBS handbook was "pinko."

I don't know if McCarthy was sincere or politically expedient but his effect was counterproductive, IMO.