December 6, 2020

"Trump’s story of what happened in the 2020 election bears all the hallmarks of McCarthyite myth: conspiring elites, hidden corruption, even the threat of an imminent socialist takeover."

"And though Trump will no doubt leave office on Jan. 20, that story — and the powerful sense of grievance behind it — is sure to thrive in the years ahead. Trump has all but vowed to run again in 2024. Even if he doesn’t, he will continue to sell the tale of his martyrdom through Twitter and cable news and talk radio and conspiracy sites — forms of direct public communication that McCarthy would have envied. After 1954, when media gatekeepers such as Edward R. Murrow turned against him, McCarthy was hard-pressed to find mainstream outlets willing to tell his side of the story. Trump now has an entire right-wing media universe at his disposal, while social media allows him to bypass the gatekeepers altogether.... Even in the unlikely event that Trump himself disappears or retreats or, like McCarthy, succumbs to despair, this vast swath of citizens who love and admire him will still be here, better organized than they were four years ago, now with a martyr’s tale for inspiration. Today’s Republican establishment may ultimately repudiate the man who has held it in thrall — and in fear — for four-plus years. But it is Trump’s base, and their interpretation of his ouster from Washington, that will determine the future of Trumpism."

106 comments:

Readering said...

Oh good, more trump comments.

Mark said...

Are we in Egypt?

We will soon find out. Just depends on how much deNile we see.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Beverly Gage is whining that Trump has any platform at all. Or - how to turn McCarthism inside out and use it as a reverse weapon.

In fact, WaPoo and Beverly GAge would prefer to be the Soviet in this story. The Soviet or the Chinese communist authority who made sure Trump was "disappeared"




Leora said...

They do seem to be overlooking the fact the McCarthy was right about the State Department being riddled with communists as the intelligence agencies are now riddled with folks who think they know better than the electorate who should rule.

Balfegor said...

It's behind a paywall but does she reckon with the Russian collusion conspiracy theory? I don't understand how commentators can talk about Trump's conspiratorial narrative without foregrounding the unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that was so prevalent among his opposition for most of his presidency, and was so influential in energising his opposition. All the moreso if your historical reference point is Joe McCarthy of all people.

Michael K said...

The lefties jump right in to a Trump thread. Talking about obsessed.

It is WaPoo and nothing else should be expected.

I agree the use of the McCarthy myth is probably a bit much.

n.n said...

McCarthy was right about left-wing infiltration of government and institutions. The alt-history is a popular myth embraced and normalized by their Posterity. Today, it's the DEZIs with a Pro-Choice quasi-religion ("ethics"), policies of diversity and exclusion, sexism, fascist conspiracy with major corporations and 1%ers, and collusion with anti-nativists foreign and domestic. On a related note, the rabid diversitists projected that elections would be tainted and people intimidated when a Black-American ran for office, but their dream was not realized until an Orange-American ran for office and civil rights and oversight were denied in multiple Democrat dominions.

Joe Smith said...

Funny thing, McCarthy was correct.

Kathryn51 said...

From the book Shattered - Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign (authors Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes):

"That strategy had been set within twenty-four hours of her concession speech. Mook and Podesta assembled her communications team at the Brooklyn headquarters to engineer the case that the election wasn’t entirely on the up-and-up. For a couple of hours, with Shake Shack containers littering the room, they went over the script they would pitch to the press and the public. Already, Russian hacking was the centerpiece of the argument."

mccullough said...

Alger Hiss was a spy for the GRU.

The Tangerine Tornado said...

WaPo's gotta WaPo.

mccullough said...

Jeff Bezos said Saudi Arabia hacked his phone.

It was his girlfriend’s brother.

Browndog said...

Nothing tells you more about Joseph McCarthy and his mission than the fact establishment/media still, to this day, pound and pound and pound it was nothing more than a "conspiracy theory!" that there were commies infiltrating the leverS of power and influence in the United States.

Reminds me of BENGHAZI!!!

Whatever the libs ridicule as crazy to the point you can't even talk about it is...probably true.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Wasn't it Kamala who asked Twitter to delete Trump?

JPS said...

I don't want to hear another goddamn word about Joe McCarthy until the left repudiates those in their ranks who call anyone, but anyone, who questions their narratives a Russian stooge in the pay of Putin. Rep. Schiff had a lot of secret information he couldn't tell us about that proved Trump's guilt, if I recall.

These people never had any objection to McCarthy's methods, his reckless accusations, his "who cares?" approach to ruining reputations. They object only to his choice of targets.

Mikey NTH said...

2016 is so four years ago.

Sam L. said...

Anything in or from the WaPoo, and the NYT, I refuse to believe. I trust them not.

n.n said...

there were commies infiltrating the leverS of power and influence in the United States.

Reminds me of BENGHAZI!!!


And Spygate, and Water Closet, and #DemocracyIsAbortedInDarkness, and so on and so forth. Their legacy in America is #Wicked and progressive.

Sebastian said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

The difference - The "Russia Russia Russia - Mueller- walls are closing in" narrative-BS was spread thick and wide by the collective left. Did they actually buy their own BS? Or did they know it was a lie and pushed it anyway?


Biden family international power-grift-money-laundering is completely ignored by WaPoo and the NYT. Why is that?

Vote Fraud appears to be real. It's not a conspiracy at all. The clue? The media won't entertain a single interview with any witness. They refuse any curiosity.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Collective narrative from media on Vote fraud: "It's all lies!"

Collective narrative from media on Biden family grift: "It's all Lies!"

clues.

It's only a happy coincidence that the democrat party and the media have the same exact narrative.

Sebastian said...

"the hallmarks of McCarthyite myth"

The actual McCarthyite myth is that the myth is a myth.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

The corrupt hack press would love to silence - not just Trump.

clues.

Kate said...

Our interpretation of Trump's ouster is mostly established. Does Gage think the Left has wiggle room to rewrite that interpretation? Letting court cases resolve could help. Changes in the MSM, something that would make the greatest impact, won't happen.

Interesting, though, that she (correctly) sees that Trumpism exists beyond Trump.

Milo Minderbinder said...

Biden didn’t win any more than Hillary did. And we all know that.

narciso said...

Wasnt a one off


https://spartacus-educational.com/Harold_Ware.htm

doctrev said...

This would make historical sense if some "Roman" mongoloid from a certain backwater province was confidently comparing Julius Caesar to the Spartacist revolt, even as his legion was crossing the Rubicon into Italia proper.

Not only is the story unfinished, but people who have seen it before can note how woefully unprepared the Eloi are. Apparently they taste great with plum sauce.

Iman said...

Blogger Michael K said...
The lefties jump right in to a Trump thread. Talking about obsessed.


That’s how dung beetles roll...

Wince said...

I get the impression that people like Gage know how extremely vulnerable Biden will be if he attempts to govern.

Not only will Trump be able to "sell" his "conspiracy theory" about election shenanigans to his base, in short order Trump will be able to sell buyers remorse among those who actually did vote for Biden.

Gage et al. know this.

Already the media goal is to establish the "conspiracy theory" narrative to explain all Biden opposition, so it can be conflated with those feeling buyer's remorse when the time comes, so that anyone feeling the latter will be intimidated.

In case you haven't been watching, it's how they've rolled the last five years.

daskol said...

This arrogant twit better hope that Trump's base channels their energy into Trumpism. That will prevent them from busting out flamethrowers and burning things to a crisp, finishing off the job of burning our shit down so enthusiastically initiated by the Establishment. Sometimes you have to burn the village to save the village, I imagine they think, but sometimes you just get a burned fucking wasteland.

daskol said...

Trump is a cheerful and happy warrior, and for that, his opponents ought to be grateful. It will be difficult to swallow anything other than overturning this farce of an election, but if we manage to do that and preserve what's left of the veneer of our civilization about our politics and society, again it will be thanks to the stable genius, America-loving temperament of the man these arrogant idiots compare daily to the worst villains in modern history.

I wonder about how hermetically controlled the epistemic bubbles are, and whether people of above average intelligence and interest in the news are still confident that we had a fair vote and count, or are they absorbing the improbability of the preferred narrative of a miraculous Biden victory in PA/MI/GA/WI and probably AZ and NV. I will wait a few weeks to ask some of my more Trump-hating friends about the enormity fo the circumstantial evidence of vote fraud and other chicanery and the easily understood, data-driven improbabilities in this story.

doctrev said...

daskol said...
Sometimes you have to burn the village to save the village, I imagine they think, but sometimes you just get a burned fucking wasteland.

12/6/20, 2:54 PM

"Burn the city to save the towns" might become the tagline of the new century. As the last months show, cities are shit and can be locked down without losing anything of real value.

Burn them all.

FullMoon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joe Smith said...

"Sometimes you have to burn the village to save the village..."

You mean it's not 'Burn a child to raze a village'?

I've been doing it wrong the whole time.

Sorry, burnt kids.

stevew said...

It is mildly amusing to see these articles, one after the other, decrying Trump and Trumpism while asserting that he is certain to leave office on Jan 20, 2021. If he is on his way out why bother? Is there something they fear? The permanence of support for POTUS Trump and what he accomplished? The fact that if he loses in 2020 he is eligible to run in 2024?

One thing is for sure: they hate you and everything you believe that isn't exactly what they say you should.

Ice Nine said...

>>"Trump now has an entire right-wing media universe at his disposal"<<

You know, that massive, pervasive right-wing media universe. Was this meant to be a comedy piece?

>>"while social media allows him to bypass the gatekeepers altogether."<<

Why yes...yes it clearly was! My sides hurt.

gspencer said...

--- conspiring elites
--- hidden corruption
--- eminent socialist takeover

Well, what if Trump's right?

Tom T. said...

We all know who's been screaming false accusations of connections to Russia for the past few years. Had she been alive back then, this professor would have been on Roy Cohn's staff.

Charlie Currie said...

The first lie always wins.

JPS said...

Say, remember when Trump claimed totally without evidence that the Obama adminstration spied on his campaign?

I keep that in mind - I keep in mind the solemn media roundtables denouncing his recklessness; the interviews with sober-sounding officials, in agencies I once trusted to be nonpolitical, lamenting the shattering of norms with such wild allegations - as he claims there was an organized campaign of fraud.

5M - Eckstine said...

Roll the history kaleidoscope to a wider lens. The DNA of this professor is rooted in a slave owning culture. Yale. IF the professor is a deep and thoughtful person the content produced from the professor will be pro slavery. Even if stated not. Railing against Trumpism is just a way to hide being inspected.

John henry said...

Was there anyone that McCarthy accused improperly? Any names?

Was there anyone mccarthy sent to jail?

Was there even anything improper in his treatment of the Hollywood 10 or his relation to the Hollywood blacklist?

As several others have noted, mccarthy turned out to be right in virtually everthing he said and did that now gets sagged under the rubric of "McCarthyism"

So does this article mean that she thinks pdjt is actually right with his claims?

Perhaps George Orwell said it best when he said "McCarthyism has come to mean merely 'something I don't like'" (from memory)

John Henry

Big Mike said...

The actual McCarthyite myth is that the myth is a myth.

Looks like Sebastian has the thread winner right there!

Really, here you have a history professor from what used to be one of the most prestigious American universities, and she isn’t aware that the State Department really did have numerous Soviet spies in its highest levels. Besides Alger Hiss the Soviet spies inside the Roosevelt and Truman administrations included Harry Dexter White at the Treasury Department. who led the US delegation at the Breton Woods conference, and Harry Hopkins, FDR’s closest economic advisor. These were people who operated at the highest levels of government, yet she is apparently unaware of these facts. Some history professors we have these days!

narciso said...

I think annie moss was a low level figure in the hierarchy, there was that junior atty who was with the national lawyers guild, the communist law firm,

hollywood 10 was the house unamerican activities committee, and the chairman name escapes me, had a bad ending, they were all communists and they had a mission to spread soviet propaganda,

daskol said...

doctrev, as a city-loving urban-born city dweller, I hope that the cities can be saved, but they don't need a lot of helping burning themselves down. Between encouraging disorder and undermining the rationale for their economic existence, they may be already pretty crispy, only a lot of people haven't quite noticed yet judging by real estate prices here.

Birkel said...

The good professor is happy with the stolen presidential election.
Shim seems no reason to ask "What if the allegations are true?" because shim approves the results.

There is nothing more to shim's view of the world.

Night Owl said...

It's a wonder why you link to these Trump mind-reading articles, like this one and the earlier one comparing Trump to a Shakespearen tragedy, without comment. What is interesting about them to you? The writing is projection mixed with conjecture mixed with propaganda. Why do you think they're worth my time to read?

Critter said...

This says a lot more about the professor than Trump. Does she comprehend just how much she has been brainwashed in her liberal bubble?
What tips you off is writing that Republicans will reject Trump without specifying why. It’s just a given truth to brainwashed lefties. I pity those who pay big money to hear such propaganda.

But it is a characteristic of the left to only get one side’s fake news and to believe it is the truth.

I bet she believes the Charlottesville hoax and that Trump told Americans to inject bleach for COVID. Pathetic.

MikeR said...

1) "I think I understand your concerns. And I agree with you: It is really important to a democracy that an election be done in a way that everyone can feel comfortable that it was done fairly. I think you're mistaken here, though: I don't see that the evidence really shows that there was a problem, or enough of one to affect the election. But we should work together to make sure that this democracy works in a way that everyone is satisfied with the fairness of the results."
2) "There is _absolutely_ no evidence of any fraud in this election - none! Every judge has thrown out every case, because this is all a lie whipped up by malicious actors on the right. Even Fox News, which is so biased, has admitted that this is a lie. Anyone who believes in it is a liar and an idiot and a criminal."
A subtle difference. Do it the second way, and no one is going to believe that you care about bringing the country together.

Narr said...

Of course there were Reds in the USG in the 40s and 50s--so many, in fact, that quite a few were found and fired without and despite McCarthy's antics. A sober (hahaha) assessment of the guy and his work is that he helped make Anti-Communism itself look like the province of headline-seeking drunks and fabulists.

And Sen. McCarthy (R.- WI) had little or nothing to do with the House Un-American Activities Committee, which was chaired for 90% of its lifetime by Democrats, and had initially been set up (1938) to look into both Nazi and Communist subversion.

At any rate, "McCarthyism" isn't properly a set of beliefs but a set of practices, which is why it is so readily adapted by other headline-seekers and fabulists.

Narr
Even pros, like the CIA and NYT

Gahrie said...

Trump, like McCarthy, is right despite his tactics.

Browndog said...

The question is, why did so many in power, and still do to this day, protect communists?

Michael K said...

At any rate, "McCarthyism" isn't properly a set of beliefs but a set of practices, which is why it is so readily adapted by other headline-seekers and fabulists.

Narr
Even pros, like the CIA and NYT


It's a slogan to throw at those to the right of you. "Fascist" is the current version.
Or "Racist" if you are of the color persuasion.

rhhardin said...

I don't think he/she reads Trump very well.

Jim at said...

Oh good, more trump comments.

I'm trying to figure out who's forcing you to be here.

I'm Not Sure said...

"Oh good, more trump comments."

Oh good, another attempt to get the blog owner to stop writing about topics you don't want other people to talk about.

readering said...

I'm trying to figure out why folks respond to my comments instead of to the post.

readering said...

I mean, Michael K I understand. He's obsessed.

narciso said...

norman dodd and the reese committee, revealed the long standing effort of foundations like carnegie and ford to push antiamericanism,

wildswan said...

Biden people are talking about a "Great Reset" to take place starting on the day Biden is inaugurated (if he is) and pushed through rapidly. More or less, the ideas of Harrison Brown are to be implemented finally by his acolyte, John Holdren. Conspiracy theory? Of course, we can't know today if this will happen on that January day (if it comes). But suppose it did. Is that what Biden voters voted for? Is that what Biden voters expect when they tell Trump voters that the way the election was done is OK and it will all work out? Aren't the Bidettes thinking that Hunter's Dad will take us back to dull normalcy and good old corruption, the Fifties, maybe, while we digest 2020? But what if there are puppet masters and what is their agenda?
The Germans elected President Hindenburg, a semi-senile old man who they expected to hold back the national socialists and their leader who became Chancellor. Of course Hindenburg couldn't do that. The Nazis ran the show. Everyone was surprised. Everyone was silent, too. Will the Bidettes now telling Trump supporters to be silent speak up themselves if Biden begins to issue executive orders in way the Bidettes did not expect and did not vote for? Will the Bidettes be silent if DC burns as Paris is now burning? That is the question I wonder about.

Marcus Bressler said...

Not a credible news source.

Howard said...

The beauty of the Trump con is he attracts useless eaters from both sides. Obviously the left is bound and determined to elevate Trump to even greater heights.

Earnest Prole said...

Trump's claims in Georgia are indistinguishable from Stacey Abrams' claims. Orange is the new Black.

Bunkypotatohead said...

The Post and Times will be stuck writing their projections about Trump for the forseeable future. There is nothing about the Harris/Biden team to hold their readers interest. Not even the people who voted for them give a shit about anything they might have to say.

Big media made the mistake of focusing their ire on the bad orange man for 4 years. Now they have nothing to fall back on.

Paul Snively said...

Er,,, one big problem is that McCarthy was proven right by events. The Rosenbergs were guilty. Alger Hiss was guilty. Harry Dexter White was guilty. We literally had agents of the Soviet Union at the highest levels of the federal government.

We're never going to be able to deal with the present totalitarian socialist threat if we can't even grasp the past totalitarian socialist threat.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

@ readering - so your thought was that you would enter a conversation and be puzzled or even offended when other people took their turn to speak, and reference comments made earlier in the conversation?

Do you have this idiosyncratic view of what comment threads are supposed to be like that you think you should enforce on others with shaming techniques? Reasonable people would take a moment to pause and consider whether it is they who have gotten the social signals wrong.

For corporate media stories and their comment threads you would be correct. The opposite is true for personal sites. It's not a rule that anyone made, it's just how things developed - and those who are alert to such things pick that up. Somewhere along the line of the twenty years that blogging has been a thing.

Mr. O. Possum said...

If there were Soviet agents at the highest levels of the US government in the 1930s-40s, are there Americans spying for China at the highest levels of the American government?

Fun Fact: George Washington's second Secretary of State was a British spy. Washington found out when his correspondence was intercepted. Fired him. Hushed it up.

I'm Not Sure said...

"are there Americans spying for China at the highest levels of the American government?"

Dianne Feinstein unavailable for comment.

readering said...

ASV I am not offended by substantive comments about my comments. That happens on non-politics threads often enough. But that's not what happens on politics threads relating in any way to DJT, his family, his Administration or the GOP-Dem struggle. It's just ad hominem insults. What's the point? To make me go away? To hurt my feelings. It's been a decade and I haven't gone away, and how can my feelings be hurt by what could be all dogs on the internet (who after a decade here often claim they don't even know my sex!?!) (I know, some show their hurt feelings, but they get worse abuse than me.) I have concluded that some persistent insulters are obsessed with me for some reason, but I don't know how, except that, if they are also obsessed Trumpists, I suppose I trigger them. They would be happier in the end if just they scrolled over me.

readering said...

Of course the ending of moderation coinciding with the looney response to the election results cause me to comment more. So there's that.

readering said...

AVI, not ASV!

YoungHegelian said...

I bought this book by Herbert Marcuse. I wanted to read what Marcuse, a philosophically trained man on-the-ground-in-Germany as National Socialism came to power, had to say about its rise.

I stopped reading the essays on Nazism. What a crock of shit! His insights are basically derived from the Soviet party line, and never contradict it, as wrongheaded as it is.

And where was Marcuse employed when he wrote these gems of misinformation? Why, at the State Department! That Marcuse was 1) employed at the State Dept. 2) wrote these essentially Stalinist memos for other State Dept employees & 3) wasn't shown the door for doing so shows that there must have been a great deal of, if not outright Soviet true-believers, then many fellow travelers that walked the halls of Foggy Bottom.

rcocean said...

So, after calling Trump a Fascist, Nazi, racist for 5 years, the Leftists are now calling him "McCarthyite".

The leftist MSM are braindead liars. What's pathetic is that 75 million American's believe them. Sad.

rcocean said...

There's massive amount of Fraud. Trump won the LEGAL vote. But in the WaPo/MSM Bizzarro world, Trump is in the wrong.

This from the scum that buried the Hunter Biden story and lied about Charlottsville for 3 year and Mueller-Trump-Russia for 4 years.

Incredible.

Michael K said...

Blogger Earnest Prole said...
Trump's claims in Georgia are indistinguishable from Stacey Abrams' claims. Orange is the new Black.


Is it something in Bay Area water ? Have you checked your temperature?

I knew we should have blown up the dam at Hetch Hetchy. Maybe that's why the Bay Area went crazy.

Michael K said...

Blogger readering said...
I mean, Michael K I understand. He's obsessed.


Did I accidentally address you ? Sorry. I normally scroll by.

Phil 314 said...

Blogger Readering said "Oh good, more trump comments."

At first I thought the comment was exquisitely ironic but then it occurred to me " he's since and he's looking forward to another Trump debate."

That actually makes more sense to me.

Phil 314 said...

Gee, I never expected a Trump post to rehabilitate Joe McCarthey's reputation.

readering said...

"Did I accidentally address you ? Sorry. I normally scroll by."

Ha! 2:16 PM by my time stamp.

Earnest Prole said...

Is it something in Bay Area water ? Have you checked your temperature? I knew we should have blown up the dam at Hetch Hetchy. Maybe that's why the Bay Area went crazy.

The San Francisco East Bay gets its water from a different source. Look, I’m all for Trump’s post-election tactics as payback for Stacey Abrams’ dopey claims the election was stolen from her (not to mention Hillary Clinton’s), but the problem is that some fool might actually believe him.

jim said...

Unknown said...
Fun Fact: George Washington's second Secretary of State was a British spy.

French spy I think, or at least blabbed too much to the French ambassador, sorta like ...

jim said...

Joe Smith said...
"Sometimes you have to burn the village to save the village..."

You mean it's not 'Burn a child to raze a village'?


Along those lines, and as we all know, it takes a viking to raze a village. There are no orange vikings.

Rusty said...

readering said...
"'ASV I am not offended by substantive comments about my comments. That happens on non-politics threads often enough. Bu that's not what happens on politics threads relating in any way to DJT, his family, his Administration or the GOP-Dem struggle. It's just ad hominem insults. What's the point? To make me go away? To hurt my feelings."
Nah, We just enjoy you making a fool of yourself. You being a high price attorney for the mob and all.

Ambrose said...

When you realize the white supremacist claims did not stick to the wall, try something new.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

@ readering - you might look up ad hominem as a review. Also, people respond to the actual words you write in your comment not your history.

And obsessed Trumpists. For a decade. You might be a fine person, but you aren't scoring points for clarity here.

Readering said...

Before that they were obsessed Obama haters.

Readering said...

I miss Obama.

Readering said...

Never a lawyer for the mob. But once a lawyer against Donald and Robert Trump so I imagine I trashed him the first time he came up in an AA post.

Joe Smith said...

"I miss Obama."

I bet Obama misses you too...on your knees in front of him, servicing him with such tender, loving care.

Remember not to spill any.

What a sycophant...jeez.

Howard said...

Don't lament, Readering. Obama is running the Biden show: he's back in charge behind the scenes pulling the strings. That's why Bernie, Warren and AOC are pissed.

Joe Smith said...

"Don't lament, Readering. Obama is running the Biden show..."

Replace 'Obama' with 'Jarrett' and I think you've got it.

John henry said...

One of our best sources of intel pre-pearl harbor was a black man, employed as a janitor, who had an iq of about 80.

In reality, he was pretty smart and spoke fluent Japanese. He'd be cleaning up while high level discussions went on. He'd be carrying top secret docs to the basement for shredding.

And he worked for us intelligence. Yeah. Pretty low level job as janitor, I'd say.

A chinese man drove Diane Feinstein around for 20 years. Just another spy in a low level job.

Annie Moss worked in the map room. You know, where all the maps with troops and and ship positions are kept up to date. If she were just an American civil servant, I'd agree, not a very high level job.

Probably one of the more highly placed spies the Russians had in the us.

John Henry



There

John henry said...

Shhh... Narciso, you are scaring the fish. Usually I can catch a few fools with those kinds of statements.

I know is was HUAC who jailed the Hollywood 10. Mccarthy hadn't been in the Senate a year yet. His hearing were still 4-5 years into the future.

The blacklist of the same time was the brainchild of the media. The Hollywood Reporter, specifically. Again nothing to do with mccarthy.

I think mccarthy was absolutely right in both substance and method. I started my comment asking what mccarthy did that was improper.

No responses.

HUAC, on the other hand, investigated the political beliefs of private American citizens. Occasionally actions but mostly just beliefs.

One of our basic rights is to hold any political beliefs and speak about them. No matter how abhorrent they might be.

As long as they don't try to take any violent action.

John Henry

Anonymous said...

This was never about Trump. This was about the seething anger of Americans who were disgusted by a 24hr @ day cesspit of corruption that is our Capitol City. Our Capitol City.

Our Capitol City. Here's the choice we were given: Worse or Worser.

Not any more.

Valentine Smith said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Valentine Smith said...

McCarthyism hah! It's an empty trope now a meaningless shell of an idea gutted by hysterical overuse and the obvious fact that it's the Dems and the left who are the true demagogues. It's as if the 4 years of trump hunting never happened. No opinion writer from the left ever addresses it. Because they can't! What can they say but to deny reality (it's my truth, it's my truth so there!). Something they are usually very comfortable with. They are children. Just read the silly Nyah Nyah comments here.

sadness said...

Readering said...

I miss Obama.

I remember being in Afghanistan under Bush. Then under Obama.

The last two deployments one of our jobs was to clean up after drone strikes. Obama obviously preferred drone strikes.

Under Bush we would land and pull everyone out of the cars. Under Obama they just blew them up and we had to go ID the bodies. Most of them were bodies. Some were still crying. Some were not 4 feet tall.

Obama sure liked blowing up cars with families in them.

Qwinn said...

People are right that McCarthy was right. That the highest levers of government were infiltrated by Soviet spies.

But I keep sensing the implication that the problem was resolved some time after that. That some mechanism served to displace them. That they didn't just stay in their posts and control hiring decisions to place even more of their people in places of power.

Until they controlled every last position, down to the lowliest rookie agent, in the DOJ, FBI and CIA.

If you doubt that, answer me two questions:

1) By what mechanism were the Soviet spies ever removed?

2) What mechanism exists that would have prevented them from completing the infiltration to such an extent in the years to follow?

Marcus Bressler said...

Ann Coulter wrote a pretty decent book about the truth of so-called "McCarthyism". He was right. The media made him a bad man, using his uncouth ways to slander him. Methinks, just as with now, the media loves the Commies

Joe Smith said...

Even Hundred!

glacial erratic said...

"Today, the Washington Post claimed, without evidence, that...."

Hyphenated American said...

McCarthy accused a bunch of people of secretly working for Russia.
Trump was accused of secretly working fir Russia.

Washington post: Trump is like McCarthy...

Say what?

DEEBEE said...

Wonder if Trump going away is in WAPO’s mind time to make him a lesser bogey-man and promote him to McCarthy from Hitler.

Sam L. said...

I trust nothing from the WaPoo.

Martin said...

Gaslighting us.

I was not hallucinating on election night when several large urban areas in swing states suddenly announced they would stop counting until morning, shooed all the GOP observers away, and a few hours later dumped tens of thousands of votes into the system, and have resisted all attempts to verify what they did.

Now was I hallucinating when serious people on the Left said that after they took control they would make Puerto Rico and DC into States with 2 Senators, each, and pack the Supreme Court.

But I should forget all that and trust te people who spent 4 years telling me about Russiagate and Ukrainegate, lied to teh FISA Court about Cartter page, and kept telling me Trump was a facsist when he meekly obeyed every court decision that went against him, no matter how absurd.

Check.

Accusation=Projection=Confession, says Robert Barnes.

Cato said...

Except that McCarthy was correct. Everyone else was wrong.