It is not my intention to make judgments as to the truth or falsehood of the policy or intention of my subject; or to equate the present administration with the wisdom or ignorance of the past. I think it is important that we all understand the root of why so many of us are frightened by the suggestion of changing America from the Democratic Republic we have been blessed to live in for our entire lives or that legal immigrants made a choice to live in for the rest of theirs. You must clearly understand that these are my personal opinions and I represent no other person, group or organization as I write this. You also need to know that I am not now, nor have I ever been a member of any political party.
I remember studying in high school the basics of what is referred to as “The McCarthy Era”. As I grew older and read more for myself, I saw that it went much deeper than we had been taught. The pity is that even as little as I was taught in my high school days, the students of today are probably taught even less, and they are most certainly taught from a different viewpoint.
Chances are if you stood on a crowded street in any city in America and shouted at the top of your lungs, “Duck and Cover!” you would see every American above the age of 50 immediately stop in their tracks and look up toward the sky to see which direction they needed to move. If you have no clue what I’m talking about please either do your own internet search on the phrase “duck and cover” or trust mine.
Wikipedia.org has a very good write up about this time in our lives. They also publish a fairly extensive reference list at the end of the article. You’ll also see the Civil Defense Film we watched in elementary school at least once a month.
This wasn’t something anyone took lightly. We were taught that at any minute we could be attacked by a Communist country who wanted nothing more than to destroy America, our Constitution and the belief system we call freedom. All young children knew who Bert was and knew how to respond when they heard his name.
We were convinced of this threat that we knew would come one day, and it is my belief now that it would indeed have come if some of our country’s leaders during that time and since had not worked through international policy to dissuade it.
As I see the reports coming from Washington and everywhere else these days, I want to put that idea back into practice: I want to Duck and Cover. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that I want to bury my head in the sand until this time passes. I honestly believe I need to duck and cover for protection.
There are too many changes coming to America because of the current administration elected by a nation who, in my opinion, acted in a very rash and uninformed manner by electing this administration. Our Democracy is being replaced by Socialism bordering on pure Communism and it frightens many of us because we have lived long enough to see the differences in our Democratic society when compared to the Communistic societies of the former USSR and China.
I see happening to my country now what I read in the newspaper my dad used to teach me reading skills by “letting” me read to him each night as well as the television news he made me watch almost every night. I remember hearing him lecture anyone who would listen and even some who wouldn’t the merits and faults of McCarthyism.
Briefly, McCarthyism was the politically motivated accusations of disloyalty or treason without evidence. It gets its name from U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-WI). The broader definition of today carries this idea beyond the scope of its original definition by using it now to describe any effort to verbally attack the character or patriotism of political adversaries. In my opinion today’s definition should not hold as much water as it does. If it means that I am a McCarthyite because I view this administration as Communistic in nature, I accept the title.
For the record, I don’t believe in accusing anyone of Communistic traits without proof as Senator McCarthy did. He made public speeches and presided over Senate-based hearings attacking what he called the Hollywood blacklist which had been associated with the hearings by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. It was also widely held that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) under Director J. Edgar Hoover was working in conjunction with Senator McCarthy because of its anti-communist activities.
The school of thought is that McCarthyism actually began long before Senator McCarthy became involved. They point to the years of the First Red Scare (1917-20) led by Communism’s recognition as a political force. Fired by the success of organizing labor unions and an early opposition to fascism, the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) grew to a peak of approximately 75,000 members in 1940-41.
At the end of World War II, The Cold War sparked the issue of espionage and the results which led eventually to the Civil Defense and its campaign led by Bert the Turtle. As efforts of espionage grew, so did the attempts to defend those providing espionage information to the United States Government and the FBI including Igor Gouzenko and Elizabeth Bentley, and the prosecution of those accused of spying on the United States including Klaus Fuchs and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
Thinking of the policies of the U.S. President as socialism or Communism is not at odds with our current views of the administration. In the 1930s many conservatives pointed to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal policies as proof that the American government had been heavily influenced by Communistic ideals.
Partly to counter the growing criticism from conservatives, President Harry Truman issued a program of “loyalty reviews” for federal employees in 1947. This policy was designed by J. Edgar Hoover. President Truman’s Executive Order 9835 mandated dismissal if there were “reasonable grounds” to believe the person was involved in any actions considered disloyal to the Government of the United States and gave the FBI the charge to perform the background investigations of federal employees. This is where the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover really gained strength.
President Truman’s loyalty review program was strengthened and extended by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1953. His Chairman of the Civil Service Commission Loyalty Review board, Hiram Bingham, referred to the new rules as “just not the American way of doing things.”
J. Edgar Hoover’s influence also grew beyond the loyalty-security programs. The FBI, in secret, operated the “Responsibilities Program” distributing documents containing what they called “evidence of communist affiliations” against American citizens including teachers and lawyers with the firing of many of these by their employers. My belief is that this Responsibilities Program evolved into Cointelpro, an acronym for Counter Intelligence Program.
Cointelpro remained in operation until 1971 and included planting forged documents to give the impression that a person was an FBI informer, spreading rumors in anonymous letters, leaking information to the press, etc.
Now here we are in 2009 being referred to as McCarthyites by some of those who think we’ve “gone off the deep end”. Because we take the time to read most if not all of the over 1000 page document that is known as HB3200 (H.R. 3200 to some because it will be passed as a resolution rather than be fully accepted by both Houses) and recognize the Socialism embedded there as a direct threat to our Democratic Republic, we are maligned and considered liars, alarmists and my personal favorite “right-wing extremists”.
We’re in good company in our belief that this is NOT the health care reform America needs. Enter Sarah Palin. Sitting at her computer as her spare time allows pounding out truths to and for the American people, she has single-handedly taken on the push of the administration to force Socialism in the form of Socialized Health Care down our throats.
Using her knowledge and wisdom to point to the exact problems conservatives have with this reform bill, she has used her Facebook page to fight for what she believes in and what those of us who agree with her support. For those who have wondered why she uses a computer-based format for these statements the reason is simple. She wrote an Op-Ed piece and was accused of not actually being the author. Sarah Palin’s Facebook page belongs to Sarah Palin! No one can falsely accuse her of not actually being the writer.
It seems many people are paying attention to her, thank goodness. The “followers” to her Facebook page have climbed to almost 824,000 with over 100,000 joining her supporters in the last 31 days. That equates to approximately 3225 followers a day. This at a time when the Rasmussen Report shows that 27% of the nation’s voters strongly approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President while forty-one percent (41%) strongly disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -14. These figures mark the lowest Approval Index rating yet recorded for this President.
Many of the Democrats who are pushing this change are too young to remember the fear we all felt from being forced to lose our freedoms in favor of a Socialistic, Communistic government. Sarah Palin is even too young to know how to follow Bert’s lead to duck and cover. However, she is a reader and a person of strong values. She has also read the 1000 page proposal and is able to see the roadblocks to a free society it presents. And she is a conservative.
We need and respect her voice as she speaks for us loudly and clearly where the rest of us couldn’t be given the voice. Thank you, Governor Palin, for doing what you always do – showing support and speaking out for the American people who DO remember how to duck and cover as well as for those who can’t grasp that concept.
