Remembering The Ugliest Chapter in Republican History

[TreasonousBastard]

As usual with HNN, there are pithy comments at the end of the article, and you may want to try to post your own.

http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/3955.html

Thomas C. Reeves

The Ugliest Chapter in the History of the Republican Party (And Why It's Worth Remembering Now)

In 1948, Republicans were confident that they could not lose the presidential election. The polls showed Thomas Dewey easily defeating incumbent Harry S. Truman; indeed, the lead was such that pollsters quit the race weeks before people went to the polls. In November, the G.O.P. suffered shock when Truman pulled off an upset victory. To this day, American history textbooks routinely show the photograph of a jubilant Truman holding up the front page of the reactionary Chicago Tribune reporting his defeat.

What followed the upset was the ugliest chapter in the history of the Republican Party. Intensely frustrated over being denied the White House for fifteen years, and vowing to use any methods at their disposal, G.O.P. leaders employed Cold War frustrations to their advantage and launched an assault upon their political opponents that came to be known as the Second Red Scare. While the roots of the "Reds in high places" campaign can be found in the early Truman years, the full-scale attack upon the administration and upon Democrats and liberals in general burst onto the political scene after the election of 1948. It took Senator Joe McCarthy a while to grasp what was happening and turn it to his advantage. But in early 1950 his sweeping accusations and reckless tactics, soon called "McCarthyism," achieved worldwide attention, and the attack on ?Commiecrats became the major theme in American politics. It helped the G.O.P. win in 1952. So powerful was the vicious slander, however, that even the Eisenhower victory could not immediately stop it. (Yes, there were Reds in high places, but McCarthy and his allies were almost entirely unaware of the genuine articles.) Historians have been arguing ever since about the overall impact of the Second Red Scare, but few deny that it was considerable.

I wonder if in our own time the Left, represented by the Democratic Party, isn't suffering from the sort of trauma that gripped the G.O.P. in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

more...

[RichM]

1. FYI: "The Left" is NOT represented by the Democratic Party.

The Democratic Party is a tool of the capitalist class, just like the Republican Party. The two of them are used together, as an instrument of social & political control.

Rank & file Democrats generally swallow the lie that their party represents their interests. This, of course, is just how the system is supposed to work. It's designed that way, & most people are very effectively fooled by it.

[Mairead]

2. Ugliest chapter my arse! The ugliest one was in 2000.

And the sequelae haven't been so hot, either.