Burgess: We’re facing a new McCarthyism

When I was a boy in the late ‘40’s, I saw seemingly endless newspaper headlines about “McCarthyism.” At first I thought the term referred to Charlie McCarthy, the famous comic puppet millions of us listened to on radio—if you can imagine listening to a puppet on radio. But McCarthyism wasn’t funny, as it referred to the political tactic of smearing one’s political opponents with wild, “big lie” tactics in order to derail their programs and further your own. Sen. Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin was its namesake, though he had help from others, including Rep. Richard Nixon, who came to fame serving on the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee.

Basically, Republicans of the ‘40’s had lost power to Franklin Roosevelt and the many benefits of his New Deal of the ‘30’s, and suffered then, as Republican politicians do now, from their unwillingness or inability to put forward any major ideas that would tax or inconvenience their wealthy donors. So they tried to win elections by making their opponents out to be bad people—back then it was calling people communists or “fellow travelers.” Sen. Joe McCarthy—called “Jumpin’ Joe” for his tendency to jump to conclusions—hurt a lot of innocent people with his wild allegations, but I don’t think he ever uncovered anyone really threatening our nation. He was so infamous that a comedy record was made about him, called “Point of order!” relating to his habit of interrupting other speakers with that phrase. When he attacked the Army he was finally asked, “Have you at last no sense of decency?” and censured by the US Senate. He died not long after that, a disgraced man.

The story of Sen. Joe McCarthy—not to be confused with Sen. Eugene McCarthy, a liberal Democrat who ran for President in ’68—has a thread that ties to the story of today’s Republican Speaker, Kevin McCarthy. More than a thread, really, was the role of Sen. Joe McCarthy’s lawyer, Roy Cohn, who later became the lawyer of a New York businessman under investigation for Civil Rights violations—Donald Trump. Former President Trump, of course, was a key backer in Kevin McCarthy’s rise to the House Speakership.

Given Mr. Trump’s ties to the smear-master, Roy Cohn, we shouldn’t have been surprised by Trump’s use of the famed “big lie” tactics in his career, as in his rise to power with lies about Obama’s birthplace and his fearmongering about the mostly peaceful folks seeking refuge at our nation’s borders.

The question now is whether Kevin McCarthy and his allies, including Rep. Jim Jordan from St. Paris, Ohio—not Urbana, as folks from there point out—will be as disruptive as Jumpin’ Joe—or worse. News reports say that McCarthy and his allies will try to cut Social Security, Medicare, and other government programs—regardless of the terrible effect on millions of ordinary Americans everywhere. True, the Democrats control the Senate and the Presidency, but they need the House to raise the debt ceiling—an artificial construct no other country is saddled with—and the McCarthy-Republicans seem quite willing to sink our national economy and hurt millions of people just to hang on to power. Constitutional lawyers disagree or what can legally be done to circumvent the debt ceiling law, but the very threat of shutting down our national government or cutting pensions makes me remember the original McCarthyism, and want to ask, “Have you at last no decency?” Or, “Are you just a puppet for Trump?”

And for readers who are not on Social Security, government payrolls at the VA, Post Office, etc., remember that everyone’s spending is interconnected. Without the spending of retiree’s and government workers, many businesses would lose a lot of customers. That’s a recipe for disaster for everyone.

So buckle your seatbelt, America. It looks like we’re in for a bumpy ride. Unless Speaker Kevin McCarthy can find his decency before our national plane crashes. Or pilot Biden can work a miracle.

Jack Burgess is a retired history teacher and a former Chief of Arbitration Services for The State of Ohio.

This article originally appeared on Chillicothe Gazette: Burgess: We’re facing a new McCarthyism