We have just learned about the McCarthy era, a period when Americans were incredibly distrustful and used accusations of communism as a political weapon. There were hearings, trials, and blacklists of suspected communists. It leads one to wonder: what is the legacy of this era? Where do we see McCarthyism today?
There has always been a fear component in American politics. That is why one of Roosevelt's Four Freedoms was "Freedom from Fear" -- the right for everyone to feel secure. McCarthyism took fear to a whole new level. Essentially, anyone at odds with Senator McCarthy would be accused. McCarthyism both reached its peak and began its decline during the “McCarthy hearings”: 36 days of televised investigative hearings led by McCarthy in 1954. McCarthy found very few people to be real communist spies. But he used the accusation of communism as a tool to discredit those with whom he disagreed. His real intent was for opportunistic reasons: McCarthy used legitimate contempt for communism to attack liberals by labeling them as communists.
It can be argued that Kennedy and Johnson got the US involved in Vietnam to avoid being labeled as "soft on communism." As a result, the American peace advocates became outraged and the nation was further divided. Its legacy has also left our democracy partially undermined. On the pretext of protecting the nation from Communist infiltration, federal agents have attacked individual rights time and time again. Traces of McCarthyism can be found during the FBI's secret program, called, the COINTELPRO program, where they harassed political dissenters, often illegally in the 1960s and 70s.
The Progressive called McCarthy “an ambitious faker living by his wits and guts, a ruthless egotist bent on personal power regardless of the consequence to his country, a shrewd and slippery operator with the gambler's gift for knowing when and how to bluff... .” Sound familiar today?
We see even today how modern politicians prefer to attack each other rather than attack problems which they are obligated to solve. During the 2016 election, Kellyanne Conway was famous for her "whataboutism" strategy, accusing Clinton of being a criminal rather than answering questions about Trump.
So, the concept and strategies of McCarthyism have not left American politics, and they will likely never leave. Power-seekers know that attacking enemies turns public opinion, especially if you do it enough times. Unfortunately, this strategy is a form of manipulation of the American voting public, and therefore it partially undermines democracy, the very thing it supposedly protects.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/McCarthyism
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/mccarthy/schrecker6.htm
http://progressive.org/dispatches/mccarthyism-now/
Bennett, thanks for writing about how McCarthyism has affected and is affecting our country today. I found your comparison of today's political strategies to those of McCarthy especially interesting. Unfortunately, like you said, deflecting questions with attacks on others' characters is an effective way of controlling public opinion. My question is, considering how effective this has been, could it be possible for the US to enter a state similar to McCarthyism again in the near future with severe attacks on human rights and fearmongering to that extreme extent?
ReplyDelete