McCarthyism, Barely Disguised

It's amazing how little the tactics have changed in more than half a century since Joe McCarthy (on the right over there misused his access to the media to accuse people of disloyalty, treason, and undermining the nation without regard to facts or evidence of any kind. Today we see the exact same process taking place, fueled by partisan media outlets who pretend to offer "news" to the American public.

Jon DeVore says it well.

Yeah, this is war. Either the far right puke funnel is brought to heel by utterly destroying its undeserved credibility, something that should have happened long ago, or our democracy plunges into neo-McCarthyite darkness for who-knows-how-long. Which obscure administration or member of Congress will be next? Will it it be a third under-secretary for African affairs, or will it be, um, YOU?...

Yeah, probably me. People like me are often a target when right-wing terrorists are looking around for somebody to aim their peashooters at.

How’s that post-partisanship civility working out? Yeah, I know, regular people get sick and tired of the clown shows, but the clown shows are not a bug, they’re a design feature. They show that many Democrats won’t fight for their principles, or that many Democrats are unprincipled whores, and in either case weakness and whorishness is exposed.

The clowns clown, the pundits pontificate and the “reasonable” Republicans chortle while they watch the polls and congratulate each other on what a great monkey wrench they possess. Next up will be a set of “promises” from the GOP, probably with some grandiose name only a Colbert could appreciate, that will list the requisite demands for lower taxes, bashing of immigrants, fear-mongering against gays and any clever phraseology Frank Luntz crafts to make a shit sandwich look like Pan-bagnat.

Exactly. It's about distraction and fearmongering and tactics, tactics, tactics, all aimed to grab the spotlight, control the message. Meanwhile the moderates who care and the left that is too amazed to lift a finger are falling under the bus.

Remember, they always call the opposition what they are. So whey they claim that Obama is Hitler, there's a good reason to listen to what they are really saying. Doesn't anybody think it's time to stop them?