McCarthyism in God's Name

[pacalo]

Great column today by Frank Rich of the NYTimes. Frank Rich is one of the better sardonic writers about this administration:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/27/arts/27Rich.html?pagewanted=1&th&adxnnl=1&emc=th&adxnnlx=1111683698-LyRiG2df3N9FTQiRjjHZqw

...snake-oil salesmen and politicians looking to score riches or power will stop at little if they feel it is in their interests to exploit God to achieve those ends. While sometimes God racketeers are guilty of the relatively minor sin of bad taste - witness the crucifixion-nail jewelry licensed by Mel Gibson (http://www.sharethepassionofthechrist.com/) - sometimes we get the demagoguery of Father Coughlin or the big-time cons of Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker.

(snip)

The president was not about to be outpreached by these saps. The same Mr. Bush who couldn't be bothered to interrupt his vacation during the darkening summer of 2001, not even when he received a briefing titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.," flew from his Crawford ranch to Washington to sign Congress's Schiavo bill into law. The bill could have been flown to him in Texas, but his ceremonial arrival and departure by helicopter on the White House lawn allowed him to showboat as if he had just landed on the deck of an aircraft carrier. Within hours he turned Ms. Schiavo into a slick applause line at a Social Security rally. "It is wise to always err on the side of life," he said, wisdom that apparently had not occurred to him in 1999, when he mocked the failed pleas for clemency of Karla Faye Tucker, the born-again Texas death-row inmate, in a magazine interview with Tucker Carlson.

(snip)

All this is happening while polls consistently show that at most a fifth of the country subscribes to the religious views of those in the Republican base whom even George Will, speaking last Sunday on ABC's "This Week," acknowledged may be considered "extremists." In that famous Election Day exit poll, "moral values" voters amounted to only 22 percent. Similarly, an ABC News survey last weekend found that only 27 percent of Americans thought it was "appropriate" for Congress to "get involved" in the Schiavo case and only 16 percent said it would want to be kept alive in her condition. But a majority of American colonists didn't believe in witches during the Salem trials either - any more than the Taliban reflected the views of a majority of Afghans. At a certain point - and we seem to be at that point - fear takes over, allowing a mob to bully the majority over the short term. (Of course, if you believe the end is near, there is no long term.)

(snip)

The Harvard Law School constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe pointed out this week that even Joe McCarthy did not go so far as this Congress and president did in conspiring to "try to undo the processes of a state court." But faced with McCarthyism in God's name, most Democratic leaders went into hiding and stayed silent. Prayers are no more likely to revive their spines than poor Terri Schiavo's brain.

[AndyTiedye]

1. Nothing Short-Term About It

At a certain point - and we seem to be at that point - fear takes over, allowing a mob to bully the majority over the short term.

The two examples cited don't bode well for the willingness of the
people to get rid of a theocracy at ANY point. The Salem witch trials
were only ended on the orders of the Royal governor, and then only
after his own wife was accused of witchcraft! The theocracy was ended
by the authority of the British monarch, not by the people of Salem.
The Taliban was overthrown by our troops, and is making a comeback
despite their presence. Theocracies are NEVER removed by indigenous
forces. It has not happened once in recorded history afaik.

The theocracies of the Dark Ages only fell because their leaders
went off on the Crusades (kings were expected to lead their troops
into battle in those days) and didn't come back.

[pacalo]

2. Like the end of McCarthyism, we'll have to wait for that moment

when someone steps up to the plate & says, "Have you any decency?" And just as important, that voice will be heard & understood.

[AndyTiedye]

3. Things Were Different Then. We Had a Free Press

when someone steps up to the plate & says, "Have you any decency?" And just as important, that voice will be heard & understood.

Much, much, more important. We have the voices that have been saying
everything that needs to be said. You don't hear them on the six-oclock
news, in fact you don't hear them on TV at all, unless you happen to
catch them on CSPAN once in a while. Anything critical of the regime
is filtered out by the media now. Never before in our history has
virtually ALL of the media been operating as an arm of one party.

If we had today's media back in 1954, Joseph Welch's words would
never have gotten any mention, and McCarthy's successors would most
likely still be holding HUAC hearings today.

With Fauxnews shilling for him, Joseph McCarthy could have (and would
have) become President.

[pacalo]

6. True, we did have a free press then

and they did have a hand in fanning McCarthy's fires - enough to taint the reputations & cause blacklisting of those publically accused. Ruined reputations & careers are not insignificant.

And the times that bore the fruit of McCarthy's madness were similar the conditions of today:

Why were so many held in thrall to the Wisconsin lawmaker? Why was an environment that some likened to the SALEM WITCH TRIALS tolerated?

In 1947, President Truman had ordered background checks of every civilian in service to the government. When Alger Hiss, a high-ranking State Department official was convicted on espionage charges, fear of communists intensified.

McCarthy capitalized on national paranoia by proclaiming that COMMUNIST SPIES were omnipresent and that he was America's only salvation.

An atmosphere of fear of world domination by communists hung over America in the postwar years. There were fears of a nuclear holocaust based on the knowledge that the Soviet Union exploded its first A-bomb in 1949. That same year, China, the world's most populous nation, became communist. Half of Europe was under Joseph Stalin's influence, and every time Americans read their newspapers there seemed to be a new atomic threat.

At a speech in WHEELING, WEST VIRGINIA, on February 9, 1950, McCarthy launched his first salvo. He proclaimed that he was aware of 205 card-carrying members of the Communist Party who worked for the United States Department of State. A few days later, he repeated the charges at a speech in Salt Lake City. McCarthy soon began to attract headlines, and the Senate asked him to make his case.

http://www.beyondbooks.com/ush12/6a.asp

[ElectroPrincess]

4. Too funny, I'm presently listening to the insanity that is FOX Cable News

with <lame drum roll> Neil Calvuto(sp?). Believe it or not, they're describing the men around The Holy Father. Ole' Neil asked about one chap, "would you consider that guy as The Pope's Karl Rove?" Without batting an eye, the guest said, "Yes! or perhaps His Ed McMahon?"

Oh, I can't believe these nasty, evil, irreverent corporate shills on FOX cable news. I'm listening today because I just know the "insane meter" will be off the scale.

Whoa, hold me Momma!?! Hope the Democratic leadership has some of their gophers listening closely so they can turn these bozo's crazy behavior against them during the 2006 campaign.

[pacalo]

5. Unbelievable -- even for Faux News.

Maybe the media's frenzy that is helping to perpetuate the madness will turn out to be King George's undoing. Wishful thinking, I know, but hope is all I have left.