Joseph McCarthy a Reminder of U.S. Government Going Terribly Awry
There have been terrible missteps throughout the history of the United States, but the lesson learned from the Joseph McCarthy era is one that should never be forgotten, lest it happen again.
As with most governments, the United States democracy is not immune to the occasional misstep, as evidenced by the long history of atrocities that have occurred in the land of the free. Beginning with the genocide of the land's indigenous people and continuing with the Salem witch trials, slavery, Japanese internment camps, segregation, the Bay of Tonkin scandal, Bay of Pigs, Watergate, Whitewater, supposed weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, warrantless wiretaps and countless others, the history of the subversion of freedoms in the U.S. is a rich one. One of the most atrocious modern-day examples of U.S. tyranny, however, remains Joseph McCarthy's tenure in the U.S. Senate.
McCarthy, who served as Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until he died in 1957, has come to embody all that is wrong with fear-based politics, and led a crusade during his tenure that was nothing short of manipulative, dishonest, Machiavellian and tyrannical. McCarthy, seizing on the tensions of the Cold War to fuel his own personal crusade against a list of enemies that he branded as communists, led his charge with unsubstantiated claims, most famously when he claimed to have a list of communists and Soviet spies that were employed within the U.S. State Department.
While McCarthy did eventually produce such a list, leading to the ruin of many, both within and outside the U.S. government, there was rarely, if ever, any evidence of any wrongdoing by those whom McCarthy singled out. His tactics were so extreme that the term "McCarthyism" was coined in 1950 as a reference to his policies, and has come to have meaning in the modern day to refer to fear-mongering in general and overstepping of boundaries within the U.S. government in particular.
McCarthy made his great mistake, however, when he began casting an ever-wider net to try to snare political enemies. At various times, McCarthy claimed Communist infiltration of the State Department, President Truman's administration, Voice of America and the U.S. Army. In 1954, the Army-McCarthy hearings began the erosion of the senator's popularity and on December 2, 1954 the U.S. Senate voted, 67 to 22, to censure him. As such, McCarthy became one of the few senators in U.S. history to be thus disciplined.
Perhaps most interesting of McCarthy's many adversarial exchanges were his battles with Democratic President Truman. Truman once noted that McCarthy was "the best asset the Kremlin has," referring, of course, to sympathy that McCarthy brought to the Communist cause with his overbearing and dishonest policies. The parallels between McCarthy as a fueler of Communist sympathy and the modern-day tendency of ultra-conservative policy to actually foment greater dissent among jihadists remain a history lesson that appears to have been largely ignored to this point, despite being pointed out regularly in the media.
While there are many low points in U.S. history, it is the policy and practices of Joseph McCarthy that should, perhaps, stand out above all others as a reminder of the slippery slope that government officials face when using their high-profile platform to make unsubstantiated claims.
McCarthy, who served as Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until he died in 1957, has come to embody all that is wrong with fear-based politics, and led a crusade during his tenure that was nothing short of manipulative, dishonest, Machiavellian and tyrannical. McCarthy, seizing on the tensions of the Cold War to fuel his own personal crusade against a list of enemies that he branded as communists, led his charge with unsubstantiated claims, most famously when he claimed to have a list of communists and Soviet spies that were employed within the U.S. State Department.
While McCarthy did eventually produce such a list, leading to the ruin of many, both within and outside the U.S. government, there was rarely, if ever, any evidence of any wrongdoing by those whom McCarthy singled out. His tactics were so extreme that the term "McCarthyism" was coined in 1950 as a reference to his policies, and has come to have meaning in the modern day to refer to fear-mongering in general and overstepping of boundaries within the U.S. government in particular.
McCarthy made his great mistake, however, when he began casting an ever-wider net to try to snare political enemies. At various times, McCarthy claimed Communist infiltration of the State Department, President Truman's administration, Voice of America and the U.S. Army. In 1954, the Army-McCarthy hearings began the erosion of the senator's popularity and on December 2, 1954 the U.S. Senate voted, 67 to 22, to censure him. As such, McCarthy became one of the few senators in U.S. history to be thus disciplined.
Perhaps most interesting of McCarthy's many adversarial exchanges were his battles with Democratic President Truman. Truman once noted that McCarthy was "the best asset the Kremlin has," referring, of course, to sympathy that McCarthy brought to the Communist cause with his overbearing and dishonest policies. The parallels between McCarthy as a fueler of Communist sympathy and the modern-day tendency of ultra-conservative policy to actually foment greater dissent among jihadists remain a history lesson that appears to have been largely ignored to this point, despite being pointed out regularly in the media.
While there are many low points in U.S. history, it is the policy and practices of Joseph McCarthy that should, perhaps, stand out above all others as a reminder of the slippery slope that government officials face when using their high-profile platform to make unsubstantiated claims.
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