WAS: What Adults are Saying about a McCarthy Redux

Fear as Social Order makes a Remarkable American comeback

Comparing the grotesque misdeeds of 47 and his political and monied enablers with the significant misdeeds of McCarthyism is truly nolo contendre. In the severe alcoholic fog of his closeted Senate time, Joe McCarthy could never aspire to create as much soul-robbing ambiguity and chaos as 47 and his minions. Though that may have been his goal when he lifted from his jacket, in this author’s birth town, a receipt for his hotel laundry and promptly proclaimed it a “list of known Communists” in government. But he was severely bluffing and knew his horse-hockey had a natural shelf life of unknowable duration.

For awhile, he successfully wielded demagoguery and pure nonsense to strike fear in many pockets of America. Washington was one place, so too was Hollywood where industry turncoats facilitated blacklists and fueled one of the most tawdry chapters in American history. Until 47, this was one of the worse examples of government leaders levying oppression and fear on the American psyche. By today’s standard’s, the duration and impact of McCarthy’s mayhem might be considered quaint. Like today’s GOP his colleagues sat idle as he raged. Also like today, a right-wing media ecosystem fanned fear through professional and social sanction from stars of the day like Hedda Hopper or Walter Winchell. Indeed the wounds were deep and sometimes grave. Woody Allen’s The Front (1976) and the more recent Trumbo (2015) are but two of many films the rightly portray the fear of the time.

But perhaps two or three years in, McCarthy started to get his comeuppance. First from Joseph Welch at Senate hearings then shortly thereafter, he was carved like a Christmas turkey by Ed Murrow and producer Fred Friendly who simply exposed the roguish McCarthy’s in his own words. History tells us this was a key turning point against his authoritarian behavior and from there, McCarthy rapidly descended into irrelevancy and alcohol madness.

History also will show his number one aide during this dark period was one Roy Cohn. He, a New York rogue-lawyer who raged for decades against anything implying fair play or social decency. Along the way he became a special mentor to, you guessed it, a junior 47. The McCarthy to Cohn to 47 lineage is as direct as a slick double-play trio—comprehensive and something that has now brought out the worst in many Americans.

Almost a decade rambling on his decadent stage, 47 and his Cohn inspirations have commanded far too much American attention and sucked the life out of too much, and always, eventually, makes lead out of anything he touches. For reasons not fully understood many Americans has grown accustomed to all of this—offering a mere shoulder shrug when more serious reaction would seem warranted. This not only has perpetuated 47’s clown show, but like an addict on tilt, ever more extreme malicious behavior and slander so his desired power high can still be felt. The early days of his second Washington tour may also be bringing fear of his nonsense or indiscriminate venom to directly affect what some may say or write and to whom. This so called “chilling affect” is widely apparent in legacy media and has been for sometime. But its now emerging in the corporate world and worse, the academy, where many sit with zipped lips so as to not to encounter 47’s mayhem. By definition this is a full repeat of what McCarthy wrought in certain corners and is the walking embodiment of authoritarianism.

If you are one who believes America gets the leaders she deserves because of citizen ballot box power, so be it. That’s hard to argue. On the other hand no sane person knowingly votes for a candidate so he might then directly bludgeon the people who elected him. That’s happening to an unknown degree now but as always with 47, the theatrics about his intended actions never matches the extent of actual behavior. But for sure, people so far have been hurt and heads have rolled, and though legal intervention may reverse much of this tawdry nonsense, not all scars will be healed.

The depth of 47’s mess can never be correctly described nor can it come as much of a surprise. He and his followers simply invent paper mache problems (Greenland, The Panama Canal, etc.) and then spew Orwellian drivel about “solving” them that does little for America’s continued safety and security. To be sure, there is a lot packed into this can of madness that can create the type of fear where people disengage. Such a reaction, however, is principally what 47 is about in simply evaluating how much imbecile-like behavior he can conduct and get away with. It also channels the McCarthy/Cohn pedigree of fear, silence and ultimately social detachment. Just because 47 wants to repeat this sad chapter of American history doesn’t mean its citizens should accommodate.