Dennis could not be more right --- what we have called "McCarthyism" begins as early as 1946 with the adoption by Truman of the so-called Loyalty PRogram --- the red baiting of Henry Wallace's progressives was organized by Clark Clifford for the Truman campaign -- long before that, for example, Hubert Huphrey and other Minnesota Democrats had spearheaded the destruction of the independence of the Farmer-Labor Party by purging communists from it --- If one wants to give that approach an individual's name, calling it "Hooverism" is much more legitimate. He began to gather evidence against the Communist Party ini 1945 and recommended prosecution under the Smith Act as early as 1947 --- the Truman Administration indicted the top Communist leaders in 1948 ---
As I made clear in my article about Judge Kaufman, there was absolutely no contradiction between post-New Deal liberalism and vicious anti-democratic anti-communism --- as exemplified by the Justice Department, the Judiciary, and the NY Prosecutors --- almost all of whom were Democrats --- in their behavior towards my parents. McCarthy was a "johnny come lately" to anti-communism --- and (ironically) in 1953, he let it be known via back channel that he was personally in favor of my parents being granted clemency by Eisenhower --- (probably because of the Pope's intervention but we don't really know why). My (short) "take" on the danger of fascism today is that there are THREE LEGS to the stool --- the billionaires who became billionaires because of neo-liberalism want to keep their privileged positions but they know that most of the policies that helped them rise to the top (and created the incredible increase in inequality since the late 1970s) are unpopular --- so they need shock troops. The other two legs of the shock troops are the unreconstructed racists (we've had them since the Civil War in one form or another) who can be made to fear the "great replacement" --- immigrants and uppity women, gays and trans people can be added to the list of "others" they need to fear --- AND the religious right who since the marriage of their hatred of women's rights and particularly reproductive rights to the Republican Party have been very loyal shock troops (as witnessed by their abandonment of all pretense of really caring about "morality" with their support of Trump). On Tue, Mar 26, 2024 at 12:22 PM Dennis Brasky <[email protected]> wrote: > > McCarthyism was not about one person. And what’s happening today within >> our society and the erosion of democratic practices and values is not just >> about Donald Trump. >> >> https://www.tempestmag.org/2024/03/people-have-to-act-collectively/ >> >> >> _._,_._,_ > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#29675): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/29675 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/105161269/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
