Joseph McCarthy

Liz Cheney And The New “McCarthyism”

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Liz Cheney, the conservative activist and daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, has become a lightning rod among both liberals and conservatives.

Many conservatives, including Ken Starr, Michael Mukasey, Larry Thompson, and Ted Olson have denounced Liz Cheney for her attack on Justice Department attorneys who have defended terrorist suspects held in the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, people she termed the “Al Qaeda Seven”.

These conservatives, who all worked under George W. Bush, except for Starr, who was the special prosecutor investigating Bill Clinton in what led to his impeachment trial, declared that every person, no matter how despicable, is entitled to a legal defense under our Constitution, and that defense lawyers do not necessarily agree with their clients, but are doing what is required under the law, an effort to defend anyone from government conviction without a fair trial.

As liberals would term it, Liz Cheney is utilizing loose charges without justification against the reputations of people who deserve to avoid the image of being terrorism sympathizers. In this sense, Liz Cheney is acting like a new Joseph McCarthy, who denounced people as Communists without any evidence or justification.

It is very inspiring to see strong conservative opposition to what Dick Cheney’s daughter is doing, but the question is WHY she is doing it, and a NEW YORK MAGAZINE article clarifies this issue.

That is, it is apparent that Liz Cheney wishes in the near future to pursue a political career like her father did, and might be planning to run for the Senate in either Wyoming or Virginia. She is seen as overly ambitious, determined to preserve her father’s legacy and carry it on into the future.

She has appeared more than 40 times in the past year on talk shows on the major news networks, and has always been very combative and feisty, even against fellow conservatives. No admonition by George Will on ABC or other spokesmen on other channels has deterred her from her aggressive and vicious attacks on the Obama Administration, and now leading to the present controversy over “terrorist” lawyers raging among conservatives.

For sure, we will not see Liz Cheney back away, but she is becoming a very divisive figure in the conservative movement and the Republican party.

More than ever, it seems as if it is conservative women in the Republican party, whether Sarah Palin, Marsha Blackburn, Virginia Foxx, Michele Bachmann, Liz Cheney or others, that are becoming the true lightning rods of the GOP, and bound to play a growing role in American politics with their “in your face”, confrontational politics!

60th Anniversary Of McCarthyism: What Has The Republican Party Learned? NOTHING! :(

Ronald 2 Comments

Sixty years ago today, Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin began his rampage on the Communist issue, accusing everyone he could find of being a “Red”, a “Pinko”, or a “Fellow Traveler”, without any regard for the truth and for the damage he was doing to their reputations and lives.

Most Republicans backed him for political gain, not caring about justice and the truth. Fear and hysteria and panic reigned in that period, and only a few leaders of the Republican party spoke up against it.

One was Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, who issued a Declaration of Conscience on June 1, 1950, condemning Senator McCarthy’s methods and tactics. She was a conservative who demonstrated truly a “Profile In Courage”, which even John F. Kennedy, who later published a Pulitzer Prize winning book under that name, did not have, due to the fact that his father Joe helped to finance Joseph McCarthy.

Today, we have the Tea Party Movement which embraces similar characterics, coming across as racist, anti immigrant, ignorant, and promoting similar fear and hysteria, including willingness to utilize Tom Tancredo and Sarah Palin as advocates of its message, which includes conspiracy theories about Barack Obama and promotion of the concept that he is a dangerous “Socialist”. The Tea Party Movement has demonstrated that it is a right wing, fascist oriented, dangerous movement, much like Senator McCarthy represented sixty years ago.

And yet, who today in the Republican party is willing to speak up? Certainly, not the two women Republican senators from Margaret Chase Smith’s Maine, who have been thought to be moderates, but are unwilling to stick their necks out to speak up for what is right and good, instead choosing to remain silent.

I am referring to Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, who should show their courage and principle by denouncing the rightward trend of the party, and its collaboration with this extremist Tea Party Movement, but instead avoid any comment.

The Republican party will self destruct if they continue down the road of the Tea Party Movement, and the fact that Sarah Palin chooses to support and defend this movement, should eliminate her as someone who could be considered for national office, for which she has demonstrated absolutely no competence anyway.

For Sarah Palin, whose husband was involved in the Alaska Independence movement, to go to Texas and speak up for Governor Rick Perry, who advocated secession and nullification, bringing back memories of John C. Calhoun and the Civil War, is just more evidence of the dangers of the Tea Party Movement and Sarah Palin, its champion!

The party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Dwight D. Eisenhower should be totally ashamed on this anniversary of McCarthyism for its sinful past and its sinful present! What a disgrace for a major political party to have so little spine for what is good and decent! 🙁

Glenn Beck: The Most Dangerous Demagogue Since George Wallace!

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Dana Milbank in the Washington Post yesterday pinpointed the fact that radio and TV talk show host Glenn Beck has become the most dangerous demagogue since George Wallace in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Even more than Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity or Bill O’Reilly, Beck has become the true promoter of division and anarchy in this country through his rantings and ravings on Fox News Channel and his radio show.

Beck has claimed his belief in “death panels” under the Health Care Reform legislation, an idea first promoted by former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. He has claimed the government is organizing FEMA concentration camps for those opposed to Obama’s government. He has stated that President Obama wants to create an equivalent of Hitler’s SS or Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard. He claimed Rockefeller Center has secret meanings that are Communist, Socialist, and Progressive in its architecture and sculptures on the walls. He asserted that the government wants to promote forced abortions. This is just a selected list of his crazy assertions!

As the Anti Defamation League stated, Beck is willing to give credence to conspiracy theorists and anti government extremists.

Beck talks about Nazism and Marxism as if they are one and the same. He appeals to his ignorant audience that is too easily made emotional by his acting performance which borders on the insane much of the time.

The fact that the Gallup poll last week showed him more popular than anyone, except former South African leader Nelson Mandela, is terrifying news. His being more popular than Billy Graham, Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, and George HW Bush shows how ill informed and emotional the American public has become.

This reminds me of the appeal that Father Charles Coughlin, the “Radio Priest”, had in the years of the Great Depression. It also brings back memories of Senator Joseph McCarthy, who promoted the Red Scare in the 1950s. And, of course, it brings back bad memories of Governor George Wallace of Alabama in the 1960s and 1970s, who promoted race hatred and insecurity as he ran for President.

Face the facts: Glenn Beck is the new menace to American freedom and stability, and the fact that many advertisers have withdrawn from supporting his show on Fox News Channel is a good thing. This man has nothing positive or encouraging to say, and it is obvious he is just out to enrich himself at the expense of the gullible Americans who are rightfully concerned about their future, but are being told by this recovering alcoholic to have fear and hate for their government and many of their fellow citizens.

It is time for Americans who believe in truth and positive thinking to denounce and boycott this spewer of poison and hate, who is laughing all the way to the bank at our expense! 🙁

Revival Of The John Birch Society At The Upcoming Conservative Political Action Conference

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The upcoming Conservative Political Action Conference in February will be co-sponsored by an organization thought to be dormant, if not extinct–the infamous John Birch Society formed in 1958 to fight the “ongoing Communist conspiracy”.

This despicable organization opposed flouridation of the water supply and the desegregation of public schools as “Communist conspiracies”. They accused all government agencies of being filled with Communists.

Also, the John Birch Society called for the impeachment of Chief Justice Earl Warren, and called President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Senators John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey part of the “great Communist conspiracy”!

Can one possibly imagine that such an organization with Joseph McCarthy type rhetoric and tactics AFTER the fall of McCarthy would be permitted to co-sponsor CPAC, where most Republican politicians planning to run for President regularly appear and speak?

How will such Republican luminaries as Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, and others explain their appearances before a conference backed and supported by such a disreputable organization?

It will certainly be an interesting time to see who agrees to appear and whether they will go along with the propaganda that this disgraceful organization has been promoting for the past fifty years.

Is a new Joseph McCarthy in the offing, as a result of this upcoming CPAC? We shall see! 🙁