the way he went about it was UN-American.
I'll put on my academic hat and say... yes and no.
As I said above, the guy was a charlatan at the highest level.
But 'Un-American' is having the FBI round up people on TV at the barrel of a gun. Put them in jail without trials for 4 years. Make unfounded claims about them. Ruin their lives. Basically be the Stasi.
However... using his Senate Hearings to call witnesses... calling on Americans to testify (publically) one way or another. And doing it in front of TV Cameras (a very new thing at the time, but one could argue it was in the greatest 'sunlight' ever seen in American politics up to that point... to ram home his message direct to the American public... was about as American as it gets.
And yeah, his laundry list that he waved in front of the camera claiming to be a list of "Communists in the State Department" was great theater. But any different than the craphats now who stand up with Made-up Posters and statistics on C-Span demanding gun control or wearing of masks?
IIRC, he never put anyone in jail. Blacklists and similar were created by Hollywood producers... not by government fiat. People were forced to resign from government... but I don't recall them being forcibly removed.
McCarthy was a total POS as a human being. But he was not wrong in his assertions. And while his methods got lambasted by history and Eisenhower (who eventually had enough of his shit... which was making him and his party look bad) shut him up and exposed his dark secrets... he was spot on when it came to many of his assertions.
Today's State Department, woke Hollywood, Compromised media, Leftist-Yassir-Arafat-wanna-be academics, DC Swamp, DEI military and other entities are proof that McCarthy, while a worthless human being... was not wrong. And several books have come to his defense in recent years. Also, as someone pointed out above... who's been writing the history for 70 years? Hollywood leftists and academics who were his targets (right or wrong.)
So calling his activities un-American... well... I'd say he was something of an innovator and made great use of new media. While doing it for all the wrong reasons (his personal gain in particular.) But he went about it in the most American of ways. Using the levers of the Senate and taking full advantage of the best new media out there to go direct to the public. Andrew Jackson would have been proud.
We don't need another McCarthy. But draining the swamp is going to take balls. And hopefully we have some folks with balls to legally, ethically and publically destroy the infestation that is now DC.
Cheers,
Sirhr
truthpress.com
