Our resident historian, Uncle Abe sat down with Donatra for another series of conversations about then and now..and how they match-up.
McCARTHYISM RIDES AGAIN

By Donatra, Uncle Abe, and PraetorOne

Edited by Bible Belted

PART I

Are You Now or Have You Ever Been a Member of the Communist Party?

“At the wars end we were physically the strongest nation on earth, and at least potentially the most powerful intellectually and morally.

“The reason we find ourselves in a position of impotency is not because our only powerful, potential enemy has sent men to invade our shores, but rather, because of traitorous actions of those who have been treated so well by the nation. It has not been the less fortunate members of minority groups who have been selling this nation out, but rather those who ave had all the benefits that the wealthiest nation on earth has had to offer–the finest hoes, the finest college education, and the finest jobs in government that we can give.

“This is glaringly true in the State Department…

“In my opinion the State Department…is thoroughly infested with Communists.

“I have in my hand fifty seven cases of individuals who would appear to be either card carrying members or certainly loyal to the Communist Party, but who nevertheless are still helping to shape our foreign policy.”

Joseph R. McCarthy
Speaking in Wheeling, West Virginia, February 1950

As a result of our recent interviews with my mother-in-law’s Uncle, AKA Uncle Abe, I found myself conducting yet another interview, this one about the similarities between the McCarthy Era of the 1950s and the current Administration which uses Joe McCarthy’s tactics to drum up fear and paralyzing terror.

Considering the above example, the speech in which McCarthy initiated his national witch hunt, we feel obliged to tell you that at various times the then junior Senator from Wisconsin often changed the numbers in an attempt to generate even more paralyzing terror, hiking the number to 81 or even 203, as he saw fit. And yet McCarthy never released the list, a fact which seems more than just a little unusual when you consider the fact that McCarthy claimed to love and protect his country.

So, who was Joe McCarthy?

“Actually the man was a small town lawyer and judge until World War II,” Abe informed me. “During the war he served as an intelligence officer in the Marine Air Unit in the pacific Theater. He called himself Tail Gunner Joe, but the truth of the matter is that he never saw a day of actual air combat in his entire life.”

Continuing in the same vein, Uncle Abe reminded me that McCarthy was the ultimate opportunist, changing party affiliations from Democratic to Republican when he thought that it suited his political and personal needs.

“The truth of the matter,” Abe said, “is that McCarthy wasn’t going anywhere as a United States Senator. He craved power but he needed an issue that he could exploit to bring him that power. Eventually he found it by accusing the Roosevelt and (especially) the Truman Administrations of being soft on Communism. He based this hair-brained assumption on the fact that Democratic Presidents had met with Churchill and Joe Stalin during World War II, as if the three allied leaders wouldn’t pool their intelligence and resources to combat the combined forces of Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and Imperial Japan, all three of which were brutal regimes which, if left unchecked might very easily have conquered the world. “Of course,” Abe suggested, “the argument could be turned inside out. One might have suggested that McCarthy himself had right wing, totalitarian characteristics, and I don’t think it would be too hard to make that conclusion. Kind of like what we’re getting from the Bush Administration today.”

McCarthy’s initial targets were liberal intellectuals and internationalists who he repeatedly tied to Communism. “Isn’t it interesting?” Abe inquired. “During the 1950’s Republicans had a distinct hatred of intellectuals–and today we have a similar situation. Bush and his crowd, not only have a basic hatred for intellectuals, they are decidedly paranoid about intellectuals and critical thinking.” In Abe’s opinion Karl Rove’s foolish remarks about how liberals and conservatives reacted differently to 911–how liberals supposedly wanted to offer comfort and therapy to the terrorists–is just another form of the anti-intellectualism that has infected the modern GOP. “The idea that liberals want to comfort and analyze right wing terrorists is both a distortion and a reflection of Republican (non)thought. I think it would be more accurate to say that liberals wanted to study the situation, the factors that led to 911 and then try not to repeat them.” This, Abe noticed, was what led to the failed invasion of Iraq in the first place. When Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin made their war plans against Germany they depended on years of study, which detailed the German infrastructure. When Bush went to war against a sovereign nation in the Middle East he acted on internal impulses. He only took three months to plan the invasion; he didn’t bother to study the culture; he (Bush) didn’t even know the difference between Shias and Sunnis. “Do you really want to tell me that it as a basic distrust of intellectualism that (at least in part) led to the slaughterhouse that is now the failed nation of Iraq?”

When I asked Abe who else had been persecuted he suggested Hollywood, a reference to the infamous blacklisting of the 1950s. “Script writers were a favorite target,” Abe told me. “Creative individuals like Lester Cole, Walter Bernstein, and Abraham Polonsky were black listed. Of course there was a way around this. Often blacklisted writers would give their work to other writers who would take the script to a producer under their name and claim that they had written it.” Not that this was always a guaranteed solution. “Considering the climate of fear and paranoia that McCarthy had created, all too often new writers would find themselves being investigated. And then there was always the fear that a writer or performer might be called before the Senate and Mister McCarthy to testify.” In this regard the McCarthy hearings were not unlike the Salem Witch Hunts of 1692. All too often McCarthy and his goons depended on rumor, innuendo, or even manufactured evidence to persecute their victims, much like the so-called “spectral evidence” that the Puritans employed against suspected witches and wizards during the latter part of the 17th Century. “Remember, that in 1692 the Puritan Witch Hunters refused to believe a confession unless the person making that confessions named or accused other witches,” Abe informed me. “The same thing happened during the McCarthy Era. The McCarthyites demanded that their witnesses name other communists, and I don’t have to tell you that if they refused to cooperate their careers were quickly destroyed.” Continuing in the same vein, Abe continued: “Like our bungling Mister Bush with his ‘you’re either with us or against us mentality, the McCarthyites quickly classified their witnesses into one of two categories–friendly or unfriendly. The unfriendly ones refused to betray their fellow artists. The friendly ones wasted little time when it came to naming names and incriminating others.” When I asked why some creative individuals would be so quick to betray their fellow writers, producers, and directors etc, Abe shrugged his shoulders and turned philosophical. “Some were probably afraid,” he informed me. Others may have been opportunists just trying to save their own asses. And who knows? Maybe some of them actually sympathized with what McCarthy was doing. What I remember most though was the climate of fear, the intimidation that people felt when it came to speaking out against this clown. And I’m not talking about creative people in Hollywood. I mean every day people. Hold on.” To demonstrate how ridicules the whole situation had become, Abe informed me that one of McCarthy’s intended victims had been–of all people–Lucille Ball. “They even went after Lucy Ricardo,” Abe chuckled. I knew this would astonish my husband because one of the older members on our blog had introduced him to some of the classic I Love Lucy episodes, essentially turning my husband into die hard, I Love Lucy fan. “Back in the 1930s or 40s,” Abe chuckled, “a young, impressionable Lucy briefly joined the Communist Party to please her cantankerous grandfather. The whole thing was a joke, since Lucy was about as straight-laced as you could get, but for the professional witch hunters in 1953, this was serious business and they literally demanded that she testify before that damned committee.” According to Abe, this was one time that the practice backfired. Lucy testified and explained the situation. A short time later, her husband, Desi Arnaz, spoke to the studio audience prior to the filming of an episode, essentially explaining how this country had been very good to him and how he appreciated what America had done for him. He also defended Lucy, explaining that she too was a loyal American. As it turned out, the audience, and the fans, and the country in general was very sympathetic, and the whole thing blew over. I Love Lucy went on to become a comedy classic and McCarthy was eventually revealed as a bully and a thug.

“Others were openly defiant–or at least just defiant.,” Abe said. At this point he struggled out of his easy chair and hobbled over to one of his many book shelves, removing a dog eared copy of The Crucible by Arthur Miller. “I assume you’ve read this” Abe inquired. “On the surface it’s about the Salem Witch Hunts, but actually it’s a veiled reference to McCarthyism.

To be continued

Photos from Top to Bottom: McCarthy, Abraham Polonsky and Arthur Miller.

Tags: McCarthy, Republicans,