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The Spectacle Blog
In discussing the politics of crony capitalism — i.e., disagreements over how to deal with the “unholy alliance” of big business and big government — the Cato Institute’s Will Willkinson used the phrase “hard left,” which prompted a bizarre response from Freddie deBoer in the comments:
The political problem is that the hard left is exiled from the status of the serious, due to the many legacies of McCarthyism, before we are even given a chance to enter the debate… . The left — the real left … an actual, internationalist left — could have a lot to say about current economic and political trends.
Blaming “McCarthyism” for the disrepute of the “hard left” is a genuinely perverse act of blame-shifting. More than two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, why must the ghost of Tail-Gunner Joe be trotted out to explain the unpopularity of the “internationalist left”?
Of course, this ignores the historical failures of the “internationalist left.” Maybe deBoer didn’t mean to include mass-murderers like Pol Pot, Mao or Stalin in his “we,” but he offers no successful examples of the “hard left,” leaving us to wonder exactly who and what he means by that term.
Furthermore, as M. Stanton Evans documents in Blacklisted by History, Joe McCarthy was right. There were indeed security risks on the payroll of the State Department and other federal agencies, and honest-to-goodness Soviet agents held positions of trust in the administrations of FDR and Truman.
Apart from the stubborn facts of Cold War history, however, the “hard left” was intellectually discredited long before Joe McCarthy was elected to the Senate or had an “-ism” attached to his name. The unworkable nature of non-market economic schemes was explained by Ludwig von Mises in his 1922 book Socialism. To my knowledge, the “hard left” has never produced any effective refutation of Mises’ arguments, despite having had nearly 90 years to do so.
Because they can’t refute arguments for the market economy, the “hard left” prefers to ignore Mises, and because they can’t produce any viable alternative to the market economy, they resort to invoking “McCarthyism” to account for their failures. And yet Freddie deBoer can’t comprehend why they are “exiled from the status of the serious.”
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More Blog Posts by Robert Stacy McCain
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/03/07/when-in-doubt-try-mccarthyism
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Alan Brooks| 3.8.10 @ 9:58AM
People who say McCarthyism was a "witch-hunt",
forget that witches DO exist. Or, to be more accurate, the far left thinks:
1. fascism does exist.
2. social fascism (what Jonah calls liberal fascism) does not exist.
That is to say,
#1 is real to them;
#2 is a "witch-hunt".
Alan Brooks| 3.8.10 @ 10:04AM
Social fascism, to me, includes both Communism and Liberal Fascism.
These terms aren't scientific; but we know that people want power more than anything, and will do anything convenient to gain power over others. There is really not much we can do to prevent people from obtaining economic power, economic activity brings out the animal in men; but politics is about checking power seekers. Madison, if memory serves, called such persons "self-seekers", which is also correct.
JohnD| 3.7.10 @ 8:35PM
What we now know, which we didn't 50 years ago, is that everyone on McCarthy's list was a bonafide Soviet agent in the employ of the U.S. Government. The recent release of the long-classified texts of the "Venona Intercepts" validated, from the Soviets themselves, that each of the individuals McCarthy raised suspicions about were actual undercover Commie agents.
So in other words, the facts now show, McCarthy was correct, and right on target, and the left once again has egg on its collective face.
Furthermore, many people confuse the work of McCarthy (a senator) with the blacklisting of various writers and actors, which was actually the work of the House (the house) Committee on UnAmerican Activities.
McCarthy's targets were undeniably guilty.
Nick| 3.8.10 @ 1:54AM
Good points, JohnD.
And, the reason people confuse the two is because the left has worked hard to conflate the two for the past 60 years. How else to better demonize conservatives, or anyone on the right?
What I can't stand is when a "conservative" uses the bogus term "McCarthyism." Drives me batty.
I don't mean conservatives-in-name-only, like David Brooks or Frum or McLame. I mean conservatives who should know better, but don't, because they are ignorant of recent conservative history. Or they wish to curry favor with the MSM.
Mark LaRochelle | 3.8.10 @ 6:40AM
McCarthy submitted a list of 124 suspects to the Tydings committee in 1950 (See Blacklisted by History, pp. 255, 632-639), and investigated many more suspects after he became chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in 1953. It is not true that "the 'Venona Intercepts' validated... that each of the individuals McCarthy raised suspicions about were actual undercover Commie agents." Only a dozen or so of McCarthy's suspects are implicated in these cables as having covert relationships with Soviet intelligence (See Blacklisted by History, p. 39), although these included some of his biggest cases, such as Cedric Belfrage (OSS), T.A. Bisson (OWI) and Lauchlin Currie (White House).
Nevertheless, most of McCarthy's cases are now known to have been loyalty or security risks who should have been discharged under the Truman Loyalty Program, just as McCarthy charged. In addition to Venona decrypts, the evidence comes from formerly classified FBI files obtained via FOIA, KGB archives smuggled out by Mitrokhin and Vassiliev, and the executive sessions of the McCarthy hearings themselves, finally released in 2003.
Mike| 3.8.10 @ 2:47AM
I turn 21 in two months, and I'm getting Mises's "Socialism" for my b-day. That's the only thing I have on my list. Screw video games. Screw movies. I only want Mises. The young people in this country are waking up.
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martin j smith| 3.8.10 @ 7:30AM
When MacCarthy was in his prime, I was probably about 10 years old, so all I heard about him was from the News such as a political baiter, and a mean nasty guy. Looking back, I am not so sure. Looking at our current government, I am no at all sure that he was off the mark. Looking at those in all levels of government, media, amnd academia--I fear for our country. We need some one who is is articulate, smart ( can handle the MSM ) as President and is willing to spill the beans to the American People. Who can that be ?
I honestly do not know -yet
WhiteBikerTrash| 3.8.10 @ 8:53AM
McCarthyism by their own definition is what the Left did, and continue to do to McCarthy, and has nothing to do with what McCarthy did.
Ken (Old Texican)| 3.8.10 @ 9:24AM
I have seen a number of TV news clips involving McCarthy.
I think also I saw a black and white movie depicting him losing his mind with wads of paper sticking out of his briefcase, (leftist hollywood version of course).
Even if it was a hitback from leftists in Hollywood, I can easily imagine a good man driven crazy by people all around him who simply refused to believe the frightening truth.
Each of us has to keep a "cool tool" when pointing out the communists, (pardon the shorthand), among us. While consistently debunking their "lies of convenience", we must not become hysterical.
Point out that they are communists, (pardon the shorthand), coolly, and make THEM become hysterical.
In my mind, everyone keeps trying to find a "new" descriptive term for these vermin, but they have been with us for nearly a hundred years. Let us please finally accept that now.
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