Post by AztecWilliam on Apr 28, 2021 17:41:50 GMT -8
Remember the "Red Scare" of the early post-war era? What was the “Red Scare”? Well, according to the popular story many Americans were accused of being, or having been, Communists or perhaps fellow-travelers sympathetic to Communism in general. In many cases, people so designated suffered negative consequences including jail and black-listing.
Many of those people were either innocent or at most posed no serious threat to the country. There were also legitimate concerns over the abuse of individual rights by those who undertook investigations into Communist subversion. Recent history has not been kind to those who supported the “Red Scare.”
I agree with all that. But there is another way to look at this issue, one that does not necessitate total support of the “Red Scare” tactics.
First, you will note that I have put Red Scare in quotes. The use of the term Red Scare tends to imply, at least to a degree, that the whole anti-communist effort was illegitimate. Of course, one had to have ignored what the Soviet Union had been doing for years not to have been worried about the USSR. (Examples? How about the forced famine in the Ukraine in the thirties that murdered millions?
Holodomor - Wikipedia
How about carving up Poland and murdering thousands of Poles as part of their Hitler/Stalin pact of 1939? How about their conquest and colonization of almost all of Eastern Europe following the end of WWII?)
Another term used frequently in those days was “witch hunt”. That term is only used when the effort in question is considered bogus. To be honest, some Americans is the 30s gave up on the USA and either became Communist Party members or attended meetings and were to one degree or another sympathetic. I’m sure some of them probably thought the whole anti-communist thing was bogus.
The focus of the effort to discredit anti-communism was Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. McCarthy’s name, of course, was the origin of the term McCarthyism. He claimed that there were many Communists in the federal government and led a series of Senate hearings designed to root out Reds and fellow-travelers. His actions resulted in his censure by the Senate in 1954. He died in 1957.
Before you get too steamed up, let me make clear that I believe McCarthy was a totally irresponsible grandstander who used the cause of anti-communism as a cynical vehicle by which he could further his career. He was a fraud who did much more harm than good.
And that’s just the point. The Soviets never had a more useful stooge than Joe McCarthy. I’ve long had this little daydream in which Joe, maybe in 1949, meets secretly with a Soviet agent.
We’ll give you millions, the agent says, if you start a totally irresponsible and misguided campaign in the Senate claiming that many Soviet agents and sympathizers are in positions of influence in D.C. Understand, Joe, we really DO have lots of those. So be careful. Try to pick on marginal figures, preferably ones who are not Commies, but people who maybe attended a meeting or two to 15 years ago but whose fall would not hurt us. Just make sure you convince a large percentage of Americans that only kooks are worried about Communism.
Ever since then, the Left has accused those who oppose their goals of being McCarthyites on a witch hunt. Was McCarthy innocent or guilty? He was certainly guilty of almost all the bad things his critics have accused him of.
He was, however, not wrong in claiming that there were indeed Soviet agents and sympathizers in the federal government. We know this from a variety of sources, not the least of which are the Venona Papers. I suggest you read the follow sources if you are in doubt.
Documents Show Joe McCarthy Was Right, Author Says | CNSNews
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venona_project
That brings us to Donald Trump. Trump and McCarthy are different in so many ways, but similar in one crucial respect. McCarthy helped the USSR by delegitimizing anti-communism, at least a degree. Trump has helped the Left in general and the Democratic Party in particular by giving those groups plentiful ammunition with which to bash the only thing that stands in the way of their desire to achieve on-party control of America. That would be the GOP.
Trump has almost destroyed the traditional Republican Party. The frosting on the cake for the Left is Trump’s actions following the November election. The cherry on top of the frosting is the Jan. 6th riot (that’s what I call it). It makes no difference whether Trump planned it. We will be hearing about the Trump insurrection for years, just as we heard criticism from the Left about Herbert Hoover’s Depression and then Richard Nixon’s cover-up. As a bonus, we will also be hearing how the 73 million Trump voters are all stupid racists who have no place in polite society.
Trump’s behavior (let’s not forget Covid-19) was a godsend to the Dems. Again, I will share a silly little daydream. In this one, a Dem operative meets The Donald, sometime in 2014 or 2015. Just run for POTUS. We will secretly help you, and if you win, we will not send to the Justice Dept. smoking gun evidence that would send you to jail for many years.
What a deal for the us. He probably won’t win. If Trump does win, we will be able to use him as a punching bag for a generation.
I said it was just a daydream.
AzWm
Many of those people were either innocent or at most posed no serious threat to the country. There were also legitimate concerns over the abuse of individual rights by those who undertook investigations into Communist subversion. Recent history has not been kind to those who supported the “Red Scare.”
I agree with all that. But there is another way to look at this issue, one that does not necessitate total support of the “Red Scare” tactics.
First, you will note that I have put Red Scare in quotes. The use of the term Red Scare tends to imply, at least to a degree, that the whole anti-communist effort was illegitimate. Of course, one had to have ignored what the Soviet Union had been doing for years not to have been worried about the USSR. (Examples? How about the forced famine in the Ukraine in the thirties that murdered millions?
Holodomor - Wikipedia
How about carving up Poland and murdering thousands of Poles as part of their Hitler/Stalin pact of 1939? How about their conquest and colonization of almost all of Eastern Europe following the end of WWII?)
Another term used frequently in those days was “witch hunt”. That term is only used when the effort in question is considered bogus. To be honest, some Americans is the 30s gave up on the USA and either became Communist Party members or attended meetings and were to one degree or another sympathetic. I’m sure some of them probably thought the whole anti-communist thing was bogus.
The focus of the effort to discredit anti-communism was Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. McCarthy’s name, of course, was the origin of the term McCarthyism. He claimed that there were many Communists in the federal government and led a series of Senate hearings designed to root out Reds and fellow-travelers. His actions resulted in his censure by the Senate in 1954. He died in 1957.
Before you get too steamed up, let me make clear that I believe McCarthy was a totally irresponsible grandstander who used the cause of anti-communism as a cynical vehicle by which he could further his career. He was a fraud who did much more harm than good.
And that’s just the point. The Soviets never had a more useful stooge than Joe McCarthy. I’ve long had this little daydream in which Joe, maybe in 1949, meets secretly with a Soviet agent.
We’ll give you millions, the agent says, if you start a totally irresponsible and misguided campaign in the Senate claiming that many Soviet agents and sympathizers are in positions of influence in D.C. Understand, Joe, we really DO have lots of those. So be careful. Try to pick on marginal figures, preferably ones who are not Commies, but people who maybe attended a meeting or two to 15 years ago but whose fall would not hurt us. Just make sure you convince a large percentage of Americans that only kooks are worried about Communism.
Ever since then, the Left has accused those who oppose their goals of being McCarthyites on a witch hunt. Was McCarthy innocent or guilty? He was certainly guilty of almost all the bad things his critics have accused him of.
He was, however, not wrong in claiming that there were indeed Soviet agents and sympathizers in the federal government. We know this from a variety of sources, not the least of which are the Venona Papers. I suggest you read the follow sources if you are in doubt.
Documents Show Joe McCarthy Was Right, Author Says | CNSNews
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venona_project
That brings us to Donald Trump. Trump and McCarthy are different in so many ways, but similar in one crucial respect. McCarthy helped the USSR by delegitimizing anti-communism, at least a degree. Trump has helped the Left in general and the Democratic Party in particular by giving those groups plentiful ammunition with which to bash the only thing that stands in the way of their desire to achieve on-party control of America. That would be the GOP.
Trump has almost destroyed the traditional Republican Party. The frosting on the cake for the Left is Trump’s actions following the November election. The cherry on top of the frosting is the Jan. 6th riot (that’s what I call it). It makes no difference whether Trump planned it. We will be hearing about the Trump insurrection for years, just as we heard criticism from the Left about Herbert Hoover’s Depression and then Richard Nixon’s cover-up. As a bonus, we will also be hearing how the 73 million Trump voters are all stupid racists who have no place in polite society.
Trump’s behavior (let’s not forget Covid-19) was a godsend to the Dems. Again, I will share a silly little daydream. In this one, a Dem operative meets The Donald, sometime in 2014 or 2015. Just run for POTUS. We will secretly help you, and if you win, we will not send to the Justice Dept. smoking gun evidence that would send you to jail for many years.
What a deal for the us. He probably won’t win. If Trump does win, we will be able to use him as a punching bag for a generation.
I said it was just a daydream.
AzWm
