It is an old cliché to refer to a politician as a “McCarythite” or to bring up the specter of the HUAC when discussing current politics. However, it seems there are still those in the American political sphere who would gladly resurrect Joseph McCarthy, or at the very least, are willing to adapt his policies. Many even lovingly embrace the image of a neo-McCarthyite. Right wing columnist Ann Coulter famously called for an era of new McCarthyism, presumably because the first era of McCarthyism went so well. Andrew Napolitano of Fox News recently began claiming that MN Secretary of State Richie is a former Communist. (The GOP has recently released a statement claiming that Richie was written about favorably by his state’s Communist Party, but there is no validation to Richie’s claim). Representative Michelle Bachman (coincidentally of the same state as Richie) called for investigations into the personal lives of senators and congressmen shortly before the 2008 elections. Another politician, Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina ran ads attacking the Christian faith of her opponent. Republican Congressman Paul Broun compared President-elect Obama to Adolph Hitler. It is quite clear that there are still people out there who would gladly take on the role of demagogue or wear the mask of a witch hunter. Sometimes these tactics backfire (Bachman’s comments became a fundraising tool for her opponent. Dole’s led to her lose her seat to Kay Hagen.)
Nor is the hateful rhetoric limited to Bachman and Dole, or to high profile media figures. A U.S. embassy guard was recently fired after claiming Obama owed favors to “socialist, communist, fascist and terrorist supporting nations” at that Obama’s “socialist” government would make the American way a “memory.” Citizens in a small Maine town have taken to betting on when President-elect Obama will be assassinated.
It is clear to me that the spirit of fear and division is alive and well in our country. I am reminded of words originally spoken by Republican Senator Margaret Chase Smith:
“It is a national feeling of fear and frustration that could result in national suicide and the end of everything that we Americans hold dear,”
The quote is still true today. For far to long, people have attempted to prophet from the eternal enemies of a flourishing democracy: fear, chicanery, prejudice, and division. Let us hope that we may finally collectively turn the page, sentencing the McCarthy-ies, Doles, Bachmans, Coulters, and Brouns of the world to the history books.
