tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post114306051969922703..comments2024-03-28T13:18:28.238+00:00Comments on Grumpy Old Bookman: More about Senator McCarthyMichael Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11338398159818400930noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-72137156034556000582008-11-05T22:34:00.000+00:002008-11-05T22:34:00.000+00:00Senator McCarthy - a blow-hard, bullly, paranoid d...Senator McCarthy - a blow-hard, bullly, paranoid delusionist - all. Yes there are still those in US society and politics who might also take to same attitude to the new President, Barack OBama here in November 2008. Senator OBama has been accused of being a 'Socialist' which to some euqates with being a 'communist'. Even President Roosevelt prior to WW2 was accused of being a 'Communist' by some in the States.<BR/><BR/>Still the same old bigotted atitudes remain. It sure sucks dont it, and here we are in the 21st century!!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1143434323214113572006-03-27T05:38:00.000+01:002006-03-27T05:38:00.000+01:00I have to say, the "finer points" of dialectical m...I have to say, the "finer points" of dialectical materialism seem to have been lost on the millions of starving Soviets, Chinese, and North Koreans who were fairly well-trained in Marxist theory. So... but other than that, Yeah!Caseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03820693522030084335noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1143219298406359222006-03-24T16:54:00.000+00:002006-03-24T16:54:00.000+00:00am I wrong to think that anyone who belongs to the...<EM>am I wrong to think that anyone who belongs to the Communist Party is an implicit advocate for the violent overthrow of the Constitutional government of the United States? </EM><BR/><BR/>Yes. Many Party members (and virtually all Americans on the extreme left) rejected the idea of armed revolution, opting for the view that socialism would arrive in the forms of government to which people were accustomed. There was nothing new about that; Wells and Shaw had been preaching such Fabianism to the British fifty years earlier.archerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07585829829302449682noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1143197284984642602006-03-24T10:48:00.000+00:002006-03-24T10:48:00.000+00:00Brilliant post.But surely the most insidious aspec...Brilliant post.<BR/>But surely the most insidious aspect of the McCarthy period was the rise to influence of those who coat-tailed McCarthy's rise, ie. Reagan, Nixon and John Wayne amongst others. Reagan used the offices of the Screen Actors Guild and his close friendship with John Wayne to further both his movie career and develop a political power base. Yellow bellied (he declined to enlist in WW2)John Wayne likewise used the McCarthy period to build his profile as a True American Patriot, and, in the process destroyed many good people's careers, before declaring himself as Nixon's rabble rouser in chief in the Nixon-Kennedy election. <BR/>And you're right about McCarthy's lack of knowledge. McCarthy accused Ed Murrow of once being a Wobbly (a member of the Industrial Workers of the World), linking them (the IWW) with the great Soviet Conspiracy. As every casual student of the Wobblies knows the IWW was more anti-communist than McCarthy. One of their better known slogans was "To defeat fascism we have to destroy bolshevism". The IWW still exists.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1143196657665215712006-03-24T10:37:00.000+00:002006-03-24T10:37:00.000+00:00Brilliant post.But surely the most insidious aspec...Brilliant post.<BR/>But surely the most insidious aspect of the McCarthy period was the rise to influence of those who coat-tailed McCarthy's rise, ie. Reagan, Nixon and John Wayne amongst others. Reagan used the offices of the Screen Actors Guild and his close friendship with John Wayne to further both his movie career and develop a political power base. Yellow bellied (he declined to enlist in WW2)John Wayne likewise used the McCarthy period to build his profile as a True American Patriot, and, in the process destroyed many good people's careers, before declaring himself as Nixon's rabble rouser in chief in the Nixon-Kennedy election. <BR/>And you're right about McCarthy's lack of knowledge. McCarthy accused Ed Murrow of once being a Wobbly (a member of the Industrial Workers of the World), linking them (the IWW) with the great Soviet Conspiracy. As every casual student of the Wobblies knows the IWW was more anti-communist than McCarthy. One of their better known slogans was "To defeat fascism we have to destroy bolshevism". The IWW still exists.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1143153930254371692006-03-23T22:45:00.000+00:002006-03-23T22:45:00.000+00:00Great post. If you look at the news-reel of McCart...Great post. If you look at the news-reel of McCarthy now - in the footage used in Good Night, And Good Luck, for example - it's extraordinary to think that such a shifty, ill-at-ease, lank-haired, badly-dressed and downright surly character could wield any kind of power at all. I've never read much about McCarthy but Michael Herr's novel about his odious cohort Walter Winchell is a blast.Wyndhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06682812260329010391noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1143142463887561142006-03-23T19:34:00.000+00:002006-03-23T19:34:00.000+00:00McCarthy was not only a sad (and dangerous) figure...McCarthy was not only a sad (and dangerous) figure, he failed to cover his tracks well. We still have McCarthys in America today--they simply learned to duck and spin so they aren't exposed. <BR/><BR/>One of the legends that grew out of the era was that Edward R. Murrow "took him on,"...the truth is he, like most, waited until McCarthy's walls were already falling before saying anything, when it was safe. History re-written, as usual, and it works better in the movies.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1143134526873201492006-03-23T17:22:00.000+00:002006-03-23T17:22:00.000+00:00McCarthy's personal problems aside, am I wrong to ...McCarthy's personal problems aside, am I wrong to think that anyone who belongs to the Communist Party is an implicit advocate for the violent overthrow of the Constitutional government of the United States?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1143130215004544592006-03-23T16:10:00.000+00:002006-03-23T16:10:00.000+00:00"McCarthy, in short, was one of the nastiest lumps..."McCarthy, in short, was one of the nastiest lumps of dogshit ever to rise to the top in a western democracy ... He was a self-serving demagogue."<BR/><BR/>There is something very deeply satisfying, in the same way as a cold drink on a hot day, about reading an erudite person use the word dogshit in such an appropriate and sublime manner.<BR/><BR/>Some say that profanity is the last refuge of a weak mind. I've always felt that it, like any other form of speech, can be brutally effective when weilded properly.<BR/><BR/>Thanks for proving me right.<BR/><BR/>Ook ookThe Fez Monkeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17032327740040303468noreply@blogger.com