I figured that is where you were going with this line. Clever analogies aside, history shows McCarthy was right on his premise regarding Communist and Communist sympathisers in the US Government and the general populace. Relaesed KGB records show the truth regarding the American Comminist Party and others who supported the overthrow of this government.


Kirt:

By the way, it would not have been a "nonviolent replacement of government" if communism had won in the US. History shows that when the "fabric of society" was remade by the communists, it ripped up the weave. Look at Russia/USSR, Cambodia/Khymer Rouge, China, etc......

Does it now? Try Googling 'Joe McCarthy' and see how long it takes you to find anything in print that doesn't paint him as a waste of human skin. He never convicted a single 'communist' and ended his career in utter shame, and rightfully so. A thousand flies can't be wrong.

Maybe some of you Yanks could enlighten the remainder of the world. I have always been confused by the statement that democracy is the ultimate expression of American freedom, but only if your policital beliefs are popular.

Many democratic nations have communist parties, and members of such parties that run for office. They exist within the democratic framework of their respective nations. They garner few votes thanks to their extreme position, but they do introduce ideas to the debate.

We in Canada have three levels of government, Federal, Provincial, and Municipal. All members of the various legislatures are elected (unfortunately by first-past-the-post, but that's another debate...) and ALL members of society over the age of 18 are permitted to vote, as long as you hold Canadian citizenship. We have parties that run along the entire spectrum. Suppose we did elect a communist party? Wouldn't that be democracy in action?

I think that post WW2 US culture has been dominated by war. There is the war on poverty, the war on drugs, the war on terrorism, the war on communism, the war on porn, the war on whatever-we-got-today.

When did the US become "free if you think like me..?"

__________________
John Shellenberg
1998 C230 "Black Betty" 240K

http://img31.exs.cx/img31/4050/tophat6.gif

Sure. The commies were all coming to get us. If we heard what they said, we would all turn commie, so we had to silence them. The US Army, 200 million private citizens with guns, the legal system, the Congress, all of them were going to go commie if these guys were allowed to make a speech. Well, dude, I got all kinds of Republicans around me and I ain't voting for George Bush anymore than I would have voted for Nikita Krushchev.

This is same repackaged crap being sold to us by Bush. Fear and Smear says it all.

...your support for the death penalty is duly noted in the records.

Ultimately we arguing about the Patriotic Act, and Bush's governing by fear. We just haven't quite got there yet.

Yeah -- we found the president of his fan club. Who'd a thunk it........

I think he really meant to say Alger Hiss, based on the context in which he said how after the fall of communism some who were not thought to be spys in fact turned out to be. Then again maybe not, as there was a movement to clear the Rosenburg's name by their children that died when Kremlin archives showed that they were spies. In any case, people who are tried on espionage charges and found guilty are a different class, they could be Nazis or even Muslims or Israelis as we have seen. They all deserve to die. But Crazy Uncle Charlie? And what about Red Ted? What would the Village be without him.

Yes, but they were nowhere near as clear cut as the Rosenburg stuff the found. The historians are still arguing about the Hiss stuff. Myself, I think anyone with a name like Hiss had to be a spy. That was all I needed. The man was simply a snake in the grass commie. His name proved it.

I actually heard a snake say his name once......

Actually, when I asked my Dad when I was younger about this particular contradiction in the Cold War, we are the land of the free etc, except if you read Marx, then we put you in the chair, and he always told me that stupid snake story, you know, the commie snake says he was cold, so you put in your coat and he bites you and then laughs and says - well, you knew I was snake! Snakes and commies are like spagetti and meatballs. Moral: Never stick Alger Hiss in your coat.

I've loaned it out, but I have a book by a Russian agent. Notes he sneaked out of prison, and documents from the KGB that shows a lot of McCarthy's charges were true. i.e. There were communist agents infiltrated thoughout the US government McCarthy is a thoroughly dislikeable character, but not as wrong as some would like to believe.

I believe McCarthy was getting information from his boy-toy, Hoover, but he wasn't as interested in the details as he was in exploiting an atmosphere of paranoia for personal gain, which he did with wicked effectiveness.