History? McCarthy facts and fictions and general blowhard political grandstanding?

[babe]

Some reference has been made in connection with a view that Trump is in some connections comparable to Joseph McCarthy.

Alright kiddos, who was McCarthy, and what's the fuss? Is Trump anything like that?

I read all about it in about 1965. I don't remember anything about it in the news when I was oh three or four years old. Didn't have a TV, mom only listened to the Radio on Sunday Night to hear "Music and the Spoken Word" with two of my relatives long-time figures in the production, one a BYU music professor who was also associated with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and Richard L. Evans if memory serves. So is was a nice childhood, with nary a word spoken in the home about commies or even politics.

My uncle across the street was a college History teacher who wrote some books on local history. My aunt's sister was a writer who made a name for herself, and an outcast of herself, for researching Mormon history and writing some particularly unwanted books on Mormon history. People today refer to her as the historian more than my uncle. On the other side of my uncles house was the Snow family, and a contemporary who is today the official LDS Church Historian.

History is so fascinating. But the people who write it are even more interesting. Everybody has a story to tell. . . . . and a reason for telling it that way. . . .

 

[babe]

Here is a piece on Joseph McCarthy, which I doubt my protagonists such as Red or Game would quibble with:

https://www.coldwar.org/articles/50s/senatorjosephmccarthy.asp

here is one quibble I do have, the sentence

To stimulate his political career, McCarthy quit his job as circuit court judge and joined the Marines during World War II.

.

Without any foundation being laid, or any attempt to support the point with any kind of information, it is a bold assertion of motive, put in a very negative light, impugning the man.

This is biased writing, venomous in content, and extremely prejudicial.

So, Game, this one's for you. Do you believe anyone would quit a cush job as a judge, and join the Marines during wartime, to "stimulate his political career"?

OK, now let's talk about conspiracy theories. McCarthyism is a conspiracy theory held in great esteem by a lot of people. Believing people who say bad things about others with no reason or fact behind it have some particular motive, I mean, besides stupidity. Maybe seriously sincere stupidity.

It's like calling someone a commie without having any actual reason to believe it yourself.

That, my friends, is the essence of what has become known as "McCarthyism".

 

[babe]

Hillary has spoken of a "vast right wing conspiracy", and has called Trump a modern Hitler. How is that any different from McCarthyism?

Red, you take that one.

 

[babe]

Here is one reference that purports to tell the other side of the story about Joe McCarthy.

https://historyhalf.com/lying-about-mccarthy/comment-page-1/#comment-453094

I dunno. In my old age I find myself inclined to disbelieve politicians generally, and to suspect their motives universally. . . .So I doubt I'd be much stirred by a modern McCarthy. besides, I'd be on that list of "commies" myself, and I'd make great fun of it.

Some of my best friends are commies, and I have yet to convince one that private property is indeed a basic human right, though they own their own cars and stuff and are pretty proud of it.

 

[babe]

Marx wrote fiction, not science. His inexorable dialectics of human progress are fiction, not fact. People who believe in stuff like that are as bad as any pious Bible thumper. People today who fancy themselves "progressives" appear to me to be rebuilding medieval feudal society with a few elites lording it over the peasants huddled in their mud huts outside the castle walls. That's the likes of Al gore flying jets around to world to tell the peons not to drive their cars.

 

[Red]

Hillary has spoken of a "vast right wing conspiracy", and has called Trump a modern Hitler. How is that any different from McCarthyism?

Red, you take that one.

Lol, that's a lot to bite off and handle. But, more to the point, we're on our way to Block Island, and if I'm going there to discuss politics, I'll need my head examined. Not to mention a divorce attorney, says the little lady. Most I could say briefly is that demagoguery is the common denominator where Hitler, McCarthy, and Trump are concerned. Please also refer to the very last reply, from myself to yourself, in the Never Trump thread. I need to give it a break in any event. But, I'll be on the island for awhile as well, and I won't be reading the news, watching the news, or for that matter Trump who.....

 

[babe]

Lol, that's a lot to bite off and handle. But, more to the point, we're on our way to Block Island, and if I'm going there to discuss politics, I'll need my head examined. Not to mention a divorce attorney, says the little lady. Most I could say briefly is that demagoguery is the common denominator where Hitler, McCarthy, and Trump are concerned. Please also refer to the very last reply, from myself to yourself, in the Never Trump thread. I need to give it a break in any event. But, I'll be on the island for awhile as well, and I won't be reading the news, watching the news, or for that matter Trump who.....

Well, I'm on the road, too. All around central CA. Some redwoods deserve my gawking wonder.

But my wife isn't with me, so when my addictions get the best of me. . .you know. ..thinking and wanting someone to wonder about me, I can hardly refrain from blabbing on JF forum. . . .

Well, again, for a real historian, it is not sufficient to throw a contemporary, unproven political character I to the largely symbolic "Demagogue" tank without any supporting facts.

To do so, you might seem to be practicing your own brand of "McCarthyism".

Yes, in today's culture we have two broad types of irrational fears and prejudices which can be politically exploited by irresponsible "Demagoguea". One of those classes is Hillary Clinton with her pandering to those gripped with fear about a "vast right-wing conspiracy", and former Attorney General under the Bill Clinton administration administration, Janet Reno, who alleged that we did not need to be as concerned about ideological extremist Middle East-based terrorists as much as our own Bible-believing Christians.
In my recent observations of the Trump campaign I have seen no reference that ranks as seeking to exploit
A large group of fearful people. He is making unifying calls towards common interests of American citizens, but based on facts. Commonly understood facts, yes.
Not irrational fears about some non-existent conspiracy, but objective facts about politicians who have enriched themselves by taking bribes for passing out favors at our expense.