The McCarthy Revivalists

Conservative influencers are pushing for a return to the dark days of 1950s inquisitions.

The Atlantic
For decades, Sen Joseph R. McCarthy’s name has been used as shorthand for the opposite of the aspirational ideal of civilized #US #politics. In the way that “Kleenex” has become interchangeable with “tissue”, #McCarthyism, for many, is an eponym for the unjust, reprehensible use of political power. Indicating that anything resembled the tactics & smears of the late Wisconsin senator has been enough to suggest that such behavior was out of bounds, with no rightful place in our modern politics.

But now comes a small, influential group of hard-line right-wingers who believe that, in the words of one popular meme in such circles, “McCarthy was right”.

…The case for McCarthy’s rehabilitation centers on the contention that the senator has been unfairly maligned & was correct in his choices of both his enemies & his tactics—& that, if anything, he didn’t go far enough, limited as he was by the relative decorum of the times.

#McCarthyism #Republicans #GOP #FarRight #extremism #USpol

(The tide of public opinion turned against McCarthy when he was challenged by the U.S. Army’s chief counsel Joseph Welch with the famous question “Have you no sense of decency, sir?”—a rocket at the time that by today’s standards of political discourse could be considered something of a softball.)

#McCarthyism #Republicans #GOP #FarRight #WhiteChristianNationalism #extremism #radicalization #USpol

#LauraLoomer, gadfly & #Trump favorite, told…Michael Scherer in an interview…that “we need to make McCarthy great again.” And she told The New Yorker that McCarthy is “one of the most underrated & underappreciated political figures in history.” #JackPosobiec, a prominent #FarRight influencer & #ConspiracyTheorist, has posted that “McCarthy didn’t go far enough.” #SteveBannon, in a recent phone conversation with Breland, put it even more starkly: “We need to do #McCarthyism to the tenth power.”
@Nonilex This is extremely valuable information, thank you. We need to take their embrace of McCarthyism seriously because his Committee on UnAmerican Activities destroyed people’s lives. A sledgehammer of oppression in the 1950s. #McCarthy #RedScare

@Nonilex ewww

Did they all get brain worms? Are they contagious? Wtaf

@Heartofcoyote Well, the leader of their movement *is* Roy Cohn's protege. @Nonilex