Matthew Rothschild: McCarthyism Lives, Just Ask Bill Ayers

[marmar]

from the Progressive:



McCarthyism Lives, Just Ask Bill Ayers
By Matthew Rothschild, April 4, 2009


You remember Bill Ayers? He’s the former Weather Underground leader who has since had a distinguished academic career, teaching education at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

You’ll recall that his name surfaced during the Obama campaign as Palin and McCain tried to smear Obama with the old guilt-by-association brush.

When that failed, I thought Ayers could go back to his life, and we could all grow up.

So did he. But no such luck.

“I thought it would end,” he tells me, “but it’s escalated in a very weird way. I was canceled at a University last December, and then at the College of DuPage.”

Earlier this week, Boston College yanked Ayers. “After meetings between administrators and students, the decision was made to rescind the invitation,” spokesman Jack Dunn said, according to the Boston Herald. “We feel the appropriate decision has been reached.” ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.progressive.org/mc040409

[cali]

1. It's really not McCarthyism. McCarthyism is the power of the gov't

and that isn't the case here.

[gratuitous]

3. Right

Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sara Palin aren't in government.

McCarthyism was political opportunists manipulated by demagogues to assassinate the character of certain targeted individuals, ruining their reputations and ability to make a living by elevating policy differences into tests of citizenship and patriotism and invariably finding their targets wanting.

And what's happening to Ayers is totally different.

[cali]

4. No Senate or House investigations

and it fucking ludicrous to claim that McCain's and Palin's remarks about Ayers during campaign season, are analogous to what happened to people under McCarthyism. Ayers is a a fortunate son of a gun- as he's admitted.

[screembloodymurder]

6. Oh really?

From Lancaster, PA: http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/234689

Members of the county's Republican House delegation were meeting with top officials from Millersville University and the state's higher education system this afternoon.

The politicians want to know why the university invited 1960s radical-turned-professor Bill Ayers to speak, and who's paying for his security. Their opposition to his appearance has been well documented.

But university trustees have some questions for the lawmakers as well.

"My personal opinion is, it's inappropriate for the legislators to take a position of interfering with the college program," said Julianne Dickson, a university trustee who was attending the noon meeting on campus.

"I want to know, what is it they're suggesting — that there would be some sort of review for approval by legislators for anything the college or university is doing?" asked Dickson.

"Perhaps they'll clarify that for us. Perhaps they're just responding to this speaker, but it has implications that go far beyond that," she said.

[Igel]

8. Was he fired as a result?

Blackballed from academia, his papers not accepted by journals and his presentations for conferences? Are his books still in print, does he have any proposals still under consideration (or, heaven forbid, is he actually writing another book?)?

No, he's not been fired. His works haven't been banned. Etc., etc. So let's not take hyperbole as a real indication of reality.

These are, at worst, invited talks. Now, it's not great, but nobody's guaranteed an invited talk--esp. when the person's politically polarizing. I put "invited talks" first because they're clearly in Ayers' profession. They go on the CV, even though they have sucky honoraria (usually).

But it's not clear that these are at the level of invited talks. This might be a sort of "enrichment" lecture, where it's not narrowly focused on his research but on some larger issue of the day--the kind of lectures that activists, politicians, and various genres of famous people give. Honoraria there are usually better, but it's a poor researcher who claims such things under 'academic presentations and papers' on their CV (and some universities limit the amount of honorarium money a professor can get, anyway). In other words, they don't count, usually, towards merit pay. They're sort of bonus gigs.

As an aside, while the McCarthy hearings were at the level of government (House, specifically), they didn't put the force of government behind the banning. At least not explicitly. It was mostly in-house/in-profession bans, whether preemptively before the government could act or simply out of PR pressure.

[Mari333]

2. the right wing radio pundits are still dragging it out

bill bennett just the other day was dragging out the tired old ayers rap...they have nothing much so they use him, and ACORN, and thats all they have.
slapping around a limpdick, basically, to see if it works. it isnt working.

[madrchsod]

5. there are comments on huffington`s chicago section about this

seems there are some real cowards in naperville ..starting with the school and the bookstore. one of our members son is running for office in naperville.

[frazzled]

7. Well, the College of DuPage vs. Interview in Sunday NYT Magazine

He's had lots of speaking engagements lately, as well as a feature interview in the Sunday NY Times magazine.

He hasn't lost his job, been blackballed from academia, or been forced to flee the country, like people who were tarred by HUAC. So these analogies are not very apt.