Things appear to going down hill fast for Donald J. Trump……
A Op-Ed in The Hill….
The term “McCarthyism“, coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy’s practices, was soon applied to similar anti-communist activities. Today, the term is used more broadly to mean demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents…..
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In many ways, the Republican Party’s history with Donald Trump harkens back to its experience with another demagogue, Joseph R. McCarthy. In 1950, the Wisconsin senator claimed to have in hand a list of 205 communists working in the State Department, a charge that catapulted the heretofore little-known McCarthy onto the national stage. Sen. Bricker (R-Ohio) told McCarthy, “Joe, you’re a real SOB, but sometimes it’s useful to have SOBs to do the dirty work.” Sen. Robert Taft (R-Ohio) encouraged McCarthy to “keep talking and if one case doesn’t work, he should proceed with another.”…
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For years, Republicans refrained from criticizing McCarthy for fear of alienating their most loyal supporters. Eugene Pulliam, a conservative Republican and prominent newspaper publisher, declared that McCarthy “has the confidence of literally millions of people who think he is being directed by God.”
Members of the John Birch Society who, like McCarthy, saw a vast communist conspiracy working inside the U.S. government, were also ardent McCarthy admirers….
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A cardinal rule of politics is that no political party wants to alienate its base supporters. Republicans have slavishly adhered to that maxim….