Perspective: How Trump finally turned Republicans against McCarthyism
By Jonathan Zimmerman Jonathan Zimmerman teaches education and history at the University of Pennsylvania and is the author of"The Case for Contention: Teaching Controversial Issues in American Schools." April 5 at 6:00 AM In her 2003 book “Treason: Liberal Treachery From the Cold War to the War on Terrorism,” conservative pundit Ann Coulter launched a full-throated defense of Joseph R. McCarthy.
McCarthy’s career as a redbaiter began on Feb. 9, 1950, in Wheeling, W.Va., where he told a local Republican women’s club that there were 205 communists employed by the State Department. It ended in 1954, when the Senate censured him. All 44 Democratic senators voted to denounce McCarthy, but the Republicans were split down the middle: 22 for and 22 against.
In 1975, when a bruised United States withdrew from Vietnam, some critics blamed the war’s outcome on a failure to follow McCarthy’s example. “If the warnings he gave had been heeded, we would have been spared many of the things happening today,” declared a GOP speaker, at a gravesite commemoration for McCarthy. “We would have a greater regard for patriotism, a willingness to defend our way of life and our freedom, and a better appreciation and love for our country.
Nearly a half-century later, Buckley stood by that claim. In a 1999 interview, he insisted that McCarthy had exposed people who were “on the side of Moscow,” whether or not they were spies. Here Buckley included Johns Hopkins professor Owen Lattimore, whom McCarthy had falsely labeled “the top Soviet espionage agent in the United States.”
No longer. In the past year, Trump and his supporters have engineered a sea change in Republican sentiments by invoking McCarthy — and McCarthyism — to stigmatize Trump’s critics. Mueller seems off the hook for the moment, since his report, according to Attorney General William P. Barr, didn’t establish collusion between Trump campaign members and Russia. So the GOP has focused its charges of McCarthyism upon Schiff. At an Intelligence Committee meeting last week, Rep. Michael R. Turner made the connection explicit. “With McCarthyism,” a senator was “chasing after Russian Communists,” Turner said. “Now we have Schiff chasing after Russian collusion.
Malaysia Latest News, Malaysia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Perspective | How President Trump shattered the bond between Republicans and NATOPerspective: How President Trump shattered the bond between Republicans and NATO
Read more »
Perspective | Brexit has turned British politics into a zombie horror moviePerspective: Brexit has turned British politics into a zombie horror movie
Read more »
Lara Trump dismisses talk of Republican challenging Trump in New Hampshire primaryLara Trump says the 2020 campaign plan is to 'stay out of Democrats way. We're going to let them battle it out.'
Read more »
Perspective | Trump International Hotel is a scandal — but so are other taxpayer-subsidized hotelsPerspective: Trump International Hotel is a scandal — but so are other taxpayer-subsidized hotels
Read more »
Perspective | The Senate is rushing to confirm this Trump nominee despite ethics concerns'The Senate is rushing to confirm this Trump nominee despite ethics concerns' via PostEverything
Read more »
Perspective | How the Mueller report can still threaten Trump’s legitimacyThe special counsel likely wrote it as a facts-only road map for congressional investigators.
Read more »
Trump Urges House Republicans To Be ‘More Paranoid’ About Vote CountingTrump urges House Republicans to be ‘more paranoid’ about vote counting in upcoming elections: “There were a lot of close elections ... they seemed to, every single one of them went Democrat,” he said, without providing any specific examples
Read more »