Saturday, March 10, 2007
HAVE YOU NO SENSE OF DECENCY?
Senator Joe McCarthy, the republican junior senator from Wisconsin, cut a wide swath during the early 1950's. As chairman of the senate select committee on investigations, he had laid low many of the best known talents in Hollywood, the state department, government service, the arts, journalism, and private business with his obsessive, ruthless vendetta on exposing suspected communists in whatever context they might be suspected to lurk.
Fears often provide a backdrop allowing unacceptable and egregious government probing into the private lives of citizens.
Not limited by facts, civility, or truth, McCarthy ruined the reputations and the careers of hundreds of citizens. As one member of his party put it, "McCarthy is judge, jury, prosecutor, and publicist." He was riding high in 1953, and was greatly feared by public figures of all venues. When one of his aides was drafted into the army, he and his staff were exposed trying to obtain special favors for the draftee. McCarthy then turned his artillery upon the army itself. He alleged that a number of ranking army officers and defense department officials were communists.
The result was a legitimate senate hearing into the matter of "The Army versus McCarthy" in the spring of 1954. As a high school social science teacher at the time, the Militant Moderate had his classes watch that hearing. As the televised hearing wore on, McCarthy's petulance, reckless accusations, and offensive behavior was exposed to the country. Rebuffed and sensing he was losing, McCarthy leveled a desperate charge that one of the lawyers in the army counsel's own firm belonged to a communist front organization. (It was a legal guild doing pro bono work for the poor.)
Joseph Welch, a Boston lawyer of senior maturity representing the army, then asked the question which has been quoted thousands of times during the last half century. He said, "Until this moment, Senator, I had never gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. Sir, have you no sense of decency?"
These words were crushing, and they foretold the end of the rampaging career of this rapacious senator. He would never recover power, and he died not so long thereafter at a fairly young age. His despicable chief aide, Roy Cohn, would die unlamented as one of the earliest known homosexual victims of AIDS. McCarthy's short, dark rule of fear and terror reflects the historical connotations of the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem witch trials.
"Have you no sense of decency? Have you no shame?" These are questions which need to be raised again in American politics.
Recently the notorious spokeswoman for the right wing, Ann Coulter, went before a meeting of conservatives and insulted every major democratic candidate for the presidency with words dripping in angry sarcasm. When she came to John Edwards, her words went something like this: "Edwards, what can I say about him? Does the word 'fagot' ring a bell?" The audience laughed hilariously.
"Have you no sense of decency?"
This woman has been over the top repeatedly. Reputable television talk anchors no longer invite her, although she frequents guest lists of known ideologues. Her books are outrageously insulting. Partisan pundits and political groups know what they are getting, so why would they continue to invite her?
Should we be asking those who provide air time or a platform for such outrageous speech, regardless of which political affiliation: "Have you no sense of decency? Have you no shame?"
The quality of our political discourse must find its way out of the gutter to a more genteel level. Hate speech is inappropriate in politics and in parlors.
Dr. Edwin E. Vineyard, AKA The Militant Moderate
Fears often provide a backdrop allowing unacceptable and egregious government probing into the private lives of citizens.
Not limited by facts, civility, or truth, McCarthy ruined the reputations and the careers of hundreds of citizens. As one member of his party put it, "McCarthy is judge, jury, prosecutor, and publicist." He was riding high in 1953, and was greatly feared by public figures of all venues. When one of his aides was drafted into the army, he and his staff were exposed trying to obtain special favors for the draftee. McCarthy then turned his artillery upon the army itself. He alleged that a number of ranking army officers and defense department officials were communists.
The result was a legitimate senate hearing into the matter of "The Army versus McCarthy" in the spring of 1954. As a high school social science teacher at the time, the Militant Moderate had his classes watch that hearing. As the televised hearing wore on, McCarthy's petulance, reckless accusations, and offensive behavior was exposed to the country. Rebuffed and sensing he was losing, McCarthy leveled a desperate charge that one of the lawyers in the army counsel's own firm belonged to a communist front organization. (It was a legal guild doing pro bono work for the poor.)
Joseph Welch, a Boston lawyer of senior maturity representing the army, then asked the question which has been quoted thousands of times during the last half century. He said, "Until this moment, Senator, I had never gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. Sir, have you no sense of decency?"
These words were crushing, and they foretold the end of the rampaging career of this rapacious senator. He would never recover power, and he died not so long thereafter at a fairly young age. His despicable chief aide, Roy Cohn, would die unlamented as one of the earliest known homosexual victims of AIDS. McCarthy's short, dark rule of fear and terror reflects the historical connotations of the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem witch trials.
"Have you no sense of decency? Have you no shame?" These are questions which need to be raised again in American politics.
Recently the notorious spokeswoman for the right wing, Ann Coulter, went before a meeting of conservatives and insulted every major democratic candidate for the presidency with words dripping in angry sarcasm. When she came to John Edwards, her words went something like this: "Edwards, what can I say about him? Does the word 'fagot' ring a bell?" The audience laughed hilariously.
"Have you no sense of decency?"
This woman has been over the top repeatedly. Reputable television talk anchors no longer invite her, although she frequents guest lists of known ideologues. Her books are outrageously insulting. Partisan pundits and political groups know what they are getting, so why would they continue to invite her?
Should we be asking those who provide air time or a platform for such outrageous speech, regardless of which political affiliation: "Have you no sense of decency? Have you no shame?"
The quality of our political discourse must find its way out of the gutter to a more genteel level. Hate speech is inappropriate in politics and in parlors.
Dr. Edwin E. Vineyard, AKA The Militant Moderate
