McCarthyism

McCarthyism
One of the most famous anti-community activists to this day, was Senator Joseph McCarthy. This republican from Wisconsin was often the subject of much scrutiny for his inability as a legislator, just three years into his term in the Senate. Pressed against the wall, his only choice for reelection was choosing an issue that would be able to win the support of the voters, communism. In order to attract the appeal of many people, he claimed that Communism was taking over the government.
During this time period, people were often distraught with Communism; the mere word caused many to flinch. McCarthy took advantage of this by making consecutive strings of accusations that had no backbone in any of them. The unsupported accusations on potential communists became known as McCarthyism. This unfair tactic of accusing people of being a disloyal without any possible reference to support their claims, will forever be known as McCarthyism.
McCarthy, being the desperate man that he was, claimed to have had the names of several communists, with the peak being 205, in the State Department. However, much to no one’s surprise, he never actually gave out a single name out of the many that he had. He was able to take advantage of the Senate, where he had legal immunity from being sued for slander, so that he could spread his lies. He was able to win the hearts of fellow Republicans who did little to stop him since they falsely believed that he would win the presidential election if the public saw him protecting the country from communism successfully.
What led to his predictable downfall was when carelessly made accusations against the U.S. Army which led to a nationally televised Senate investigation. The investigation lifted the curtain from the eyes of many who had falsely believed him, causing him to lose a substantial amount of public support. This eventually led to him being condemned by the Senate for improper conduct and his death three years later.
What is the most shocking in my opinion is that the country seemed to not care about him falsely accusing the the democratic party, but once he made accusations against the U.S. Army, he was heavily penalized. This shows how much the country valued their army, compared to their democratic party.

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