A question used by US government officials working for the Permanent Subcommittee of Investigations under Senator Joseph *McCarthy. The committee carried out a campaign against supposed communists, and questioned citizens on their suspected membership of the Communist Party: ‘Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?’... ... (oxfordreference.com)
Right from the start, McCarthy had prominent critics. But almost the entire political establishment was afraid of him. You could fight him, in which case he just made your life harder, or you could ignore him, in which case he rolled right over you. He verbally abused people who disagreed with him. He also had easy access to money, much of it from Texas oilmen, which he used to help unseat politicians who crossed him. To his supporters, he could say and do no wrong. Tye quotes the pollster George Gallup, in 1954: “Even if it were known that McCarthy had killed five innocent children, they would probably still go along with him.” His fans liked that he was a bully, and they liked that he scandalized the genteel and the privileged. (newyorker.com)
History is a great source of repetition, and when its tales of the past are ignored, History will not fade away; rather, it will grow in force and power and, like a tornado, destroy anything in its wake that had not been heeded.
In the 1950s, the GOP created a much-needed villain: the so-called Communists. With nothing else to seize upon and very little else from which they could mount any honest effort to sell to the American public, Joe McCarthy created the Red Scare. Funded by the wealthy and supported by the rich, McCarthy was able to divert the public's attention. In 2024, TRUMP has become the new Joe McCarthy and IMMIGRANTS the new Communists. Fear. Loathing and Xenophobia are always the ingredients in producing SNAKE OIL!
