2008
This is from the New York Times: On Dec. 2, 1954, the Senate voted to condemn Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R Wis., for “conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute.”
It’s interesting how just a half-century later, Republicans tried a little McCarthyism on for size, Michele Bachman urging the media to investigate members of congress for anti-Americanism, McCain and Palin trying to paint Obama as “the other”, someone “not like you and me,” someone not to be trusted.”
You’d think this sort of fear-mongering, in living memory, would be enough, but apparently not. There are actually rabid fanatics out there still, compiling lists of conspiracy theories against Obama, or who paint him as the mythical “anti-Christ.”
It’s sad and more than a little frightening that these people actually seem to believe what they’re saying. It’s sadder still that McCarthy isn’t quite the ghost he should be. Like dead people, dead ideologies should stay dead.
