Griper Blade: Republicans, By Their Own Reasoning, Hate America

There are times I use the GOP's "insert political target here hates America" rhetoric against them. This is done (mostly) ironically, a jab at the ridiculous charge itself, as well as a dig at the hypocrisy of those who used it. McCarthyism and it's jingoistic cousins always come with a dose of hypocrisy -- it's one of history's great ironies that Sen. Joe McCarthy himself wouldn't have become a Senator if it weren't for the communist vote in Milwaukee. "They have the same right to vote as anyone else," he said when this was pointed out to him in 1946. Later, McCarthy would go on a witchhunt for communists in America -- both real and imagined, but all politically convenient -- which would do a lot more than suggest that he believed they didn't have the same rights as anyone else. Had McCarthy himself been anyone else, he would've been dragged before his own committee to explain what he did to earn all those commie votes. But he wasn't anyone else; he was Sen. Joe McCarthy, righteous defender against the Red Menace and, as such, above all criticism. His own connection to the Communist Party was forgotten and, with it, all evidence of his hypocrisy.

By the time George W. Bush showed up, few really gave a damn about communism anymore. The teabaggers seem to find some talismanic power left in the old accusation, but no one else seems especially freaked out by the charge. It's just an absurd anachronism, like accusing someone of being a witch.

So the right went with something a little broader. The new fear was terrorism, not creeping communism, and it was this that became the new tool of McCarthyism. At that point, Sarah Palin hadn't shown up yet, so no one had yet realized that there were people stupid enough to believe an accusation of actual terrorism. So they had to go with implied terrorism -- terrorists undoubtedly hate America, so you accuse political opponents of doing the same. And what was America? America was the president -- at that time George W. Bush. Criticize George W. Bush and you automatically hate America... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]