Many of our readers are familiar with the life and legacy of a certain Senator Joseph McCarthy. Our younger readers are familiar with him as well, but for a very different reason — they were taught that he was virtually in the same category as Adolf Hitler or the Ku Klux Klan in public school.
Today, McCarthyism is almost synonymous with authoritarianism and government surveillance. It turns out that same fake news spirit that has been weaponized against President Donald Trump and his supporters today isn’t at all new — because Senator McCarthy received the same treatment, arguably even worse.
McCarthy warned us about our cultural and political institutions become infiltrated and corrupted by people with communist views. He saw the despotic nature of the Soviet Union, and the influence it had on Hollywood and even American politicians at the time.
But the media told Americans at the time that McCarthy was crazy. There was simply no way that America was in danger of embracing authoritarian socialism, and to even consider the possibility was crazy and conspiratorial.
And here are in 2020, with one of the country’s major political parties rendered powerless as they prepare to nominate a man who has never failed to defend the Soviet legacy.
It’s time to come clean and admit that Senator McCarthy was right.
