yr13_ia_2007_kirby_e

=Conclusion (100-150 words)= The most common historical conclusion on the McCarthy witch hunts seems to claim that it was the work of one man, and a consequence of his desire for recognition and political power. The argument follows that he alone attempted to abuse a naive society into believing that there was a security risk in their midst and that it could only be attacked by means that disregarded the traditional approach of decency and legality; and that he was eventually took down by the political system.

However as his censure alludes to, and more research makes evident, McCarthy was by no means an ingenious man, the precedent had in fact already been set, the republican party in American had, and has continued, to claim that the democratic parties ‘left of centre’ politics made it akin to communism. In more general terms the abuse of fear by politicians has not abated, one has only to listen to Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani mention the terrorist threat by means of deflecting attention as to his personal defects[1] to see that the fear of a populace can be a powerful tool for personal gain. In fact, I would argue that McCarthy simply took this age-old tool of the right wing as a desperate final attempt to achieve something in office. Combine his alcoholism with his political failures and it becomes obvious that his claims were never more than the rants of a desperate and unhappy man. What is terrifying about the affair is the demonstration that a society can so easily be manipulated, and how passing public popularity renders other politicians supposed principles suddenly malleable.

[1] http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/14952564/giuliani_worse_than_bush