Sen. Joseph McCarthy chats with his attorney Roy Cohn during Senate Subcommittee hearings. Wiki Commons
Sen. Joseph McCarthy chats with his attorney Roy Cohn during Senate Subcommittee hearings. Wiki Commons
Like every dictator throughout history, Trump demands unquestioning loyalty to him first and and in our case, the Constitution last.
Comparisons are popping up that today’s encroachment on the First Amendment by the Trump administration is a return of McCarthyism. Close. But there is a huge difference.
Back in the day, the reign of terror that McCarthy and his evil henchman, Roy Cohn, inflicted on the country was based on the questioning of people’s loyalty to America and ostensibly the Constitution. Of course, the First Amendment was trampled on roughshod at this time, especially in the entertainment industry with the infamous Blacklist.
The cowardice and genuflection displayed by Paramount and ABC/Disney when confronted with the Trump administration’s extortion wasn’t really new, as any cursory study of the McCarthy era will show. Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel have been visible, overt and relentless in their criticism of Trump and his fascist crew. Kimmei has been almost immediately canceled and Colbert is still on the air, but for his last season. Back in the day of the Blacklist people lost their livelihoods, faced outright banning and could not find work for years over mere suspicions or accusations. Many were even illegally jailed.
But still today is starkly different. The present-day situation marks the first time a convicted felon was elected to the nation’s highest office. Advanced groundwork, over a period of years—yes, that means Project 2025—set the country up for a rapid fire descent into full-fledged fascism we are all seeing before our eyes.
The new McCarthyist environment generated by Trump’s acolytes does not call out whether his opponents and critics show loyalty to the Constitution or not. Now fealty to that document, and every oath of office connected to it, can become a liability if it conflicts in any way with loyalty to Trump.
Like every dictator throughout history, Trump demands unquestioning loyalty to him first and in our case, the Constitution last. Nowadays it doesn’t even matter if you are loyal to him or not, if you fail to break the law fast enough you get the boot. The perfect example is a recently appointed US Attorney assigned to investigate Trump enemies, Leticia James and James Comey. He could not find any basis of law to prosecute these two individuals, whose only “crimes” have been to point out Trump’s own crimes and investigate them. So he’s out and another probable short-timer will take his place.
Even AG Pam Bondi is under pressure to deliver prosecutions of Trump’s enemies. After all, he promised his “people” there would be retribution and revenge. Of course, what they really want to see is the pedophiles on the Epstein list in the dock. Oops. Those people are apparently too important to Donnie—like himself, followed by big donors, prominent allies, etc. That only increases pressure on the AG to furnish some red meat to the king. But what we will actually see is more floundering, false accusations, incompetence and any cases eventually brought will likely get tossed for lack of anything resembling evidence. The Epstein distraction machine must continue at all cost.
What we are seeing now is much, much worse than McCarthyism. The law was being bent, warped and reshaped back in the 50s. And when McCarthy was publicly shamed in live hearings and on the air by Edward R. Murrow, he folded up, was censured and faded out of Washington.
Trump has just gotten stronger. He’s not bending laws, he breaking them, ignoring them and supplanting them with edicts in the form of Executive Orders. Many of his actions are utterly illegal on their face. Donald Trump is not only the first convicted criminal president. He’s also the first to be granted immunity for illegal acts he commits as “official acts” of his office. Not that any past president has ever been jailed, but this one has a personal get-out-of-jail-free card courtesy of Chief Justice John Roberts.
When he ordered the murders of Venezuelan civilians on the high seas because he assumed they were drug smugglers, it was illegal. But it was an official act. Too bad for them and anyone else. Side stepping Congress and ordering tariffs that are their job. Illegal, but official. Sending the National Guard and Marines into cities for policing duties? Illegal, but official. Ignoring the Constitution’s First, Fourth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments? Again, “official.” And in some of these latter he also been further aided and abetted by the far right faction he appointed to the Supreme Court.
Donald Trump has never been interested in the work of actually governing and working to develop consensus and agreement on the laws this country is supposed to be adhering to. He is only interested in ruling, with executive orders, edicts and social media posts. That way he has more time to play golf.
So yes, this is much, much worse than the McCarthy days.
Marty Kassowitz is co-founder of Factkeepers. As founder of Interest Factory and View360, he brings more than 30 years experience in effective online communications, social media management, and platform development to the site. He is a writer, designer, editor and long time observer of the ill-logic demonstrated by too many members of the species known as Mankind. After a long history of somewhat private commentary on a subject he totally hates: politics, Marty was encouraged to build this site and put up his own analyses as well as curate relevant content from other sources.
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