"Red, White, and Blue-Baiters"

A phrase coined by historian John Moser in his article yesterday at History News Network:

.... To characterize today's pro-administration forces as "McCarthyite" misses what truly distinguished the original McCarthyites from the broader community of conservatives and anticommunists — that is, their hostility toward "the Establishment." Those who rallied behind Joe McCarthy's crusade were largely lower middle class, and more often than not of Irish, Italian, and Eastern European descent. They resented the fact that American politics and society were dominated by upper class WASPs who seemed too eager to make accommodations with communism. They concocted elaborate conspiracy theories allegedly proving that the State Department and other federal agencies were under communist control. They argued that the mainstream media were not to be trusted; that the newspapers were havens for "parlor pinks," and the publishing industry was overrun with "commies" and "fellow travelers." They railed against American corporations who wanted to trade with "Red China," accusing them of dealing in "blood money."

To be sure, there are still people on the American Right who continue to harbor such fantasies — one finds them in organizations such as the John Birch Society and the various "militias" that we heard so much about in the mid-1990s. But in the context of the current war, the essence of McCarthyism — that is, hatred of "the Establishment" and espousal of conspiracy theories — is today almost the exclusive domain of certain elements among the antiwar Left. Instead of "Red-baiters," they might more appropriately be called "Red, White, and Blue-baiters."

An examination of some of the rhetoric heard during antiwar demonstrations confirms this. There are suggestions that American policy is secretly being made by Texas oil companies, or, more strikingly, Israel (a clear point of comparison to the McCarthyite accusation that the Soviets were directly running U.S. diplomacy). There are other conspiracy theories as well-about Halliburton and the "Carlyle Group" orchestrating the war (how long can it be before the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations are mentioned?), about the allegedly "stolen" election of 2002, about how the television networks and other mainstream media outlets are owned by military contractors, and hence hopelessly biased in favor of war (Katie Couric-Merchant of Death?). And behind it all one detects, above all, a seething resentment of those that hold power in America; just the sort of resentment that Joe McCarthy was so successful in exploiting in his day....

(Thanks, John.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Tue. 04/22/03 12:57:35 PM
Categorized as Political.