If memory serves, and it rarely does, it has been a while since we have seen the term "McCarthyism" bandied about to refer to someone finding dangerous folks under the desks in Washington.
We refer, of course, to the activities of the late Joseph McCarthy, who was until his death in 1957 a senator from the great state of Wisconsin. McCarthy, so the story goes, was fond of providing lists, or at least making reference to having lists, of communists, communist sympathizers, gays and other risky types who were employed in sensitive positions in government, particularly in the State Department.
McCarthy, it may be presumed, at least for this piece, saw communists where there frequently may have been none. At least for this purpose, we'll assume that he saw a lot more than were actually there, since that is the reputation and that is what the term "McCarthyism" refers to -- seeing threats that are not there.
Senator McCarthy was a Republican as well as an anti-communist, which means that it is the left that can be relied on to use that term a lot more, although there have not been a host of places for the left to trot it out lately. Today's conservatives cannot often be accused of seeing things that aren't there. Surely the left keeps the term in their available arsenal for the right moment, though.
The "right moment" to make the accusation of McCarthyism, however, is now, as much as it ever may have been. But it is not the left who could make that claim; rather, it is they who have been behaving in a McCarthyistic fashion for a while now.
I refer to the left's fascination with political correctness, and its associated presumption that their opponents bear a deep-seated hatred for every group, whether non-white, female, Muslim, gender-unspecific or Martian. In fact, just think of every word ending in "-ophobia" and the left presupposes that we all -- maybe they too -- bear a white-hot hatred for the group preceding the suffix.
Am I that wrong? Michael Brown robs a convenience store, bullies the clerk, smokes some weed, walks up to a cop in a car and tries to get his gun to shoot him, then walks away, turns and charges the cop and gets shot to death while charging the cop. Is Brown, to the left, the villainous thug he actually is (or was)? Nope, he's the gentle giant of Ferguson, Missouri! The cop? Yep, he's the villain, and he gets accused so viciously of racism -- that had zippo to do with the case and which, in any event, no one ever corroborated -- that he has to quit the police force and go into hiding.
How is that not McCarthyism? Accusing someone, this time actually identified by name, of something in his heart and soul for which there is no evidence at all?
Is it not McCarthyism to ascribe racism to the cop in McKinney, Texas who got a bit excessive in responding to a complaint at a pool party there? What about the people who find the whole Bruce Jenner thing -- particularly receiving a "courage award" from ESPN -- to be a bit over the top? Have you seen the responses to the brave folks who express those opinions? The left is out there trying to invent a phobia, to ascribe to (and use to shame) those who don't want to give courage awards to people for being males-who-aren't-really-gay-but-feel-better-as-a-female-and-may-or-may-not-choose-a-surgical-approach-which-would-make-them-lesbians.
Aside -- I have such friends, including a very close friend who actually is one of the latter. Were he to read this, I would want him to know that he would be my friend no matter what. I do not, will not, and have never judged him, except as a human being -- who the heck am I to judge anyone? As a human being, he is a blessing to my life and he will be my friend tomorrow and the day after that.
Political correctness -- the idea that you may not offend even one in a million for being, well anything at all -- is nothing more than McCarthyism redux, 60 years later. Because you may not offend, and we all do so whether we're trying to or not, we all can be accused of being closet haters -- not of communists as in the 1950s, but of anyone not like us. Like, you know, tall people in my case. I hate those folks who can reach the top shelf.
Al Sharpton can blithely accuse the American policeman of being inherently racist and be not a shred less despicable than McCarthy was ... but he gets away with it (I have a list, too, of people avoiding huge tax bills, and the "reverend" is right at the top, but I digress).
My point is that in in the '50s, because of McCarthy, people who should have had nothing to fear were insanely careful about whom they met with, or talked with, or associated with, lest they be called a communist for associating with someone who had, I don't know, used "Soviet Union" in a sentence. That was a pretty scary time in some agencies.
Today, people who also should have nothing to fear are also keeping our mouths closed lest we let slip a comment that could be construed, incorrectly of course, as being racist, sexist, ageist, stonerist, LGBTQXYZphobic or, God forbid, anti-Muslim. A black man in McKinney, Texas who witnessed all the events at that
famous pool party, and came down on the side of the cop, gets death
threats. Toe the line, Brother.
We keep our mouths shut because of the legion of leftist PC police, intent on making themselves look better by finding fault in those around them, kind of like a homeowner's association meeting.
And if you can't easily find fault, just invent one.
It is certainly easier than thinking.
Copyright 2015 by Robert Sutton
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