In Ohio, we have at least five Republicans running for Senate right now. And with that, we’ve been bombarded with their commercials, which not only attack the other candidates, they attack half the American population as well.
They call Democrats “evil” and “socialists.” They say that liberals love drugs and are destroying America with the primary intention of destroying America. Their insults abound.
As if that were not enough, they all close their commercials with essentially the same tagline: “Pro-God. Pro-Guns. Pro-Trump.”
This translates into: “I’m Right, and God says so. Agree with me, or I’ll kill you. Trump said we could.”
It seems fitting then, that I write about this particular date in history. It was on April 22, 1954, when Joseph McCarthy began the hearings investigating the U.S. Army on charges of Communism.
Yes, Joseph McCarthy, a Republican Senator from the state of Wisconsin, from 1947 until his death in 1957. The fifth of nine children — the middle son who helped out on his mother’s farm. A grad of Marquette University. And somewhere along the line, he became a paranoid, fearful, power-hungry man.
Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face in the United States. He began his crusade against his imaginary communist takeover.
His method was grand. He professed that numerous communists, Soviet spies, and sympathizers had infiltrated the United States. And not just regular citizens but people in the federal government, universities, the film industry, and other well-lit corners. Heck, they may have even been standing right next to you.
Thankfully, back then, people noticed his delusions. Eventually. But his smear tactics did plenty of damage first. He even got his own catch-phrase — the term “McCarthyism,” the charge against anti-communist activities.
In February 1950, Senator McCarthy made the claim that there were over 200 “known communists” in the U.S. Department of State. And those few false pretensions, gave him a rapid rise to fame as the most famous and feared communist hunter in the United States.
He sucked the media right into his fervor. He told the most outrageous stories concerning the communist conspiracy in the United States. And anyone who opposed him? He smeared those opponents as “communist sympathizers.” He kept his own name in the headlines for years.
However, he started to overstep the line. You see, it was all fine and good by his fellow Republicans during the years of the Democratic administration of President Harry S. Truman. Those accused “communists” were spies in the “Democratic” government. But, when Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower took over the White House in 1953, those exact same claims were becoming political liabilities for the GOP.
And here is where he made his big mistake. He wanted to recharge his popularity and made a dramatic accusation. It was on this date in 1954, when the hearings investigating the United States Army began. McCarthy charged them with being “soft” on communism. These televised hearings gave the American public their first view of McCarthy in action. He was reckless and indignant. He used bullying tactics and browbeating. McCarthy was big on intimidation. It showed.
In April 1954, McCarthy, chairman of the Government Operations Committee in the Senate, opened televised hearings into his charges against the Army.
The proceedings were a fiasco for McCarthy. He constantly interrupted people with nonsensical questions and asides. Then, (and this sounds familiar), he yelled “point of order” whenever testimony was not to his liking.
I think today’s senators took pages right from his playbook. McCarthy would verbally attack witnesses, attorneys for the Army, and his fellow senators.
According to “The History Channel,” the climax came:
=[when McCarthy slandered an associate of the Army’s chief counsel, Joseph Welch. Welch fixed McCarthy with a steady glare and declared evenly, “Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness…Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?” A stunned McCarthy listened as the packed audience exploded into cheers and applause.]=
That did the trick. McCarthy’s days as a political power were effectively over. A few weeks later, the Army hearings faded away and closed. There were no charges upheld against the Army.
In December 1954, the Senate voted to censure McCarthy for his conduct.
Maybe it was the drinking that did it, or maybe something else, but three years later, he died of complications from cirrhosis of the liver.
As for the senators and politicians of today who use those same exclusionary, prejudiced tactics, and those sputterings of conspiracies?
Shame on you.
There is no prerequisite for honesty when it comes to being a politician, and they surely prove it, time and again.
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No legacy is so rich as honesty.
— William Shakespeare
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Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.
— Thomas Jefferson
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Goodness is about character – integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, moral courage, and the like. More than anything else, it is about how we treat other people.
— Dennis Prager
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McCarthy. Red Painter Joe.
