McCarthyism all over again
Back in the 50s with the advancement of communism in Eastern Europe, China, Indochina, and North Korea came the development of the Red Scare. One man, Joe McCarthy fueled those fears by accusing govern, ment workers, artists, the news media, and just ordinary citizens of being communists. Many people were blacklisted. Civil liberties were violated . Dissent and political expression were suppressed.
In many ways, Trump is resurrecting shades of McCarthyism. While not accusing his opponents of being communists, he is calling many news outlets of being unpatriotic. He calls many people traitors. He has targeted specific professions and institutions as being Unamerican.
Last week, the Trump administration filed suit against the Southern Poverty Law Center calling them subversive, accusing them of fomenting terrorism, working to cut off financial support, and creating an atmosphere where dissent is framed as disloyalty.
Again, last week, Jimmy Kimmel made a joke about a particular glow he was seeing in Melania. Both Mrs. and Mr, Trump are threatening to sue Kimmel--I guess for poor taste, and Trump's Federal Communications Chair is now calling for the review of the license of certain ABC stations.
And, once again we see the Trump DOJ going after James Comey for posting a picture of some seas shells arranged in a certain way. Even though a federal judge had thrown out the case previously. Trump is, in essence turining a career public servant into a scape goat because of political disagreements.
I wonder who or what Trump will go after next. And I wonder when someone will stand up to him and ask, "Have you no decency?" Do we really have two and a half more years of this craziness?
In many ways, Trump is resurrecting shades of McCarthyism. While not accusing his opponents of being communists, he is calling many news outlets of being unpatriotic. He calls many people traitors. He has targeted specific professions and institutions as being Unamerican.
Last week, the Trump administration filed suit against the Southern Poverty Law Center calling them subversive, accusing them of fomenting terrorism, working to cut off financial support, and creating an atmosphere where dissent is framed as disloyalty.
Again, last week, Jimmy Kimmel made a joke about a particular glow he was seeing in Melania. Both Mrs. and Mr, Trump are threatening to sue Kimmel--I guess for poor taste, and Trump's Federal Communications Chair is now calling for the review of the license of certain ABC stations.
And, once again we see the Trump DOJ going after James Comey for posting a picture of some seas shells arranged in a certain way. Even though a federal judge had thrown out the case previously. Trump is, in essence turining a career public servant into a scape goat because of political disagreements.
I wonder who or what Trump will go after next. And I wonder when someone will stand up to him and ask, "Have you no decency?" Do we really have two and a half more years of this craziness?
Comments
Rather my point
That reads to me as pretty prophetic of the Trump administration. So I think it is McCarthyism all over again. Actually, rather worse.
I wonder what Trump would have done with Ed Murrow?
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, / The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere / The ceremony of innocence is drowned; / The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity".
To our prayers ....
Curiously, I've had reason to read up on the guy lately, and it seems like later on his life he had rather fascist tendencies and was a fan of Mussolini.
I'm not sure how to relate that to current events then or now, but it's certainly a curious observation that feels salient in the context of that poem.
Orwell connected Yeats' aristocratic fascism(which Orwell conceded might mostly be poetic) to his occultic beliefs in hierarchical knowledge and cyclical view of history, ie. no point in trying to attain a just society when it's all just gonna start over again in a little bit.
Apart from coming up with interesting imagery to describe crisis situations, Yeats is someone the left should probably avoid quoting, since his meaning of eg. "the best" and "the worst" in The Second Coming is likely the opposite of what most progressives would think, IOW the authoritarians are the ones he wants to have more "passionate intensity".
I saw another real howler on a sign at an anti-Trump rally last year...
Pretty safe to say that Pound would think America is indeed insane, but that MAGA is the cure.
What should really make us stop and think is that McCarthyism was something that happened within the context of a democratic government with a constitutional commitment to freedoms of speech and association, spanning different Presidential terms (Truman and Eisenhower). We often expect such loyalty screening to be features of dictatorships, but that this happened within a democracy ...
What currently seems to be happening in the US is closer to the dictatorship version, because to a large extent it's focus is personal loyalty to an individual (Trump) and his programme of government, rather than the McCarthy version where it was association with perceived un-American ideas that was the focus.
Trump is more powerful than McCarthy ever was. The Constitutional checks on his power have been suborned. Quoting, with minor edits, from Harry Truman again, the consequences are as follows.
You are right. The loyalty of powerful citizens and members of the public to this demagogue are ensuring, for the time being at least, that these consequences remain unchecked.
How about this? Trumpism is McCarthyism with knobs on, with a vengeance? The process is the same. Identifying an enemy, misrepresenting its danger, using the fight agajnst “the enemy” to justify attacks on civil liberties and vilify opposition. Being President, Trump has gone one step further. He has accrued dictatorial power to the Presidency with the connivance of his loyalists. Which makes him even more dangerous than McCarthy was. And McCathyism was dangerous enough.
Unfortunately, most artists live closer to the poverty line than people think, or so I understand. It’s not hard to drive most of them to terrible straits.
Fair point.