After World War II, the United States government felt threatened by its World War II ally, the U.S.S.R.

From the end of World War II until the collapse of communism in 1991, fear was the dynamic that motivated both national and international decision making. This era emerged from post-World War II McCarthyism.

Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy (R) became symbolic for leading a witch hunt against communists in the government, the U.S. Army, the entertainment business in Hollywood, and left-leaning liberals. Although communism is no longer the threat, the attitudes and actions of the late 1940s and 1950s look strikingly similar to what we are currently experiencing.

Just like today, there was more than one leader. Besides McCarthy, there was also FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. He used the power of his federal agency to seek out communists in American government and culture. As a result of the FBI’s actions and often false accusations, many people lost their jobs, their careers, and their reputations. The FBI was what we now call “weaponized”, while at the same time accusing opponents of the very thing they were doing.

“The more conservative politicians in the United States had historically referred to progressive reforms, such as child labor laws and women’s suffrage, as “communist” or “Red plots”, trying to raise fears against such changes” (McCarthyism. Enwikipedia.org). Today, the issues are different but related: abortion and supposed “woke” doctrines like Critical Race Theory, pro-immigration, pro-minority, and pro-D.E.I. policies.

“In the early 21st century, the term [communism] is used more generally to describe reckless and unsubstantiated accusations of treason and far-left extremism, along with demagogic personal attacks on the character and patriotism of political adversaries….”

[During McCarthyism] Many people suffered loss of employment and the destruction of their careers and livelihoods as a result of the [government] crackdowns on suspected communists, and some were outright imprisoned. Most of these reprisals were initiated by trial verdicts that were later overturned, laws that were later struck down as unconstitutional, dismissals for reasons later declared illegal or actionable, and extra-judiciary procedures, such as informal blacklists by employers and public institutions, that would come into general disrepute, though by then many lives had been ruined….

The order said that one basis for determining disloyalty would be a finding of ‘membership in, affiliation with or sympathetic association’ with any organization determined by the attorney general to be ‘totalitarian, fascist, communist or subversive’ or advocating or approving the forceful denial of constitutional rights to other persons or seeking ‘to alter the form of Government of the United States by unconstitutional means’” (Wikipedia).

Today, the emphasis has reversed; instead of accusing one’s foes of acting unconstitutionally, current government leaders are ignoring the Constitution’s checks and balances to fire and punish those who challenge their authority.

Back in the 1950s, it was Democratic President Truman who had to show himself a staunch anti-communist. “President Truman’s Executive Order 9835 initiated a program of loyalty reviews for federal employees in 1947. It called for dismissal if there were ‘reasonable grounds … for belief that the person involved is disloyal to the Government of the United States.’”

Today, loyalty to the president has become the paramount concern. Executive orders are used to strip and destroy various government agencies of their employees, their funding, and even their very existence. Today, it’s Republicans in Congress who are fearful of standing up to their party leader, not the Democrats. Today, it’s the legacy media who are afraid to speak out against lawlessness, fearful that the president’s wrath and revenge will be turned against them. Today, Republicans in Congress have given up on using the checks and balances and have ceded their power to the president through their silence and acquiescence.

The McCarthy era and today’s era are both similar and different.

“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” –Mark Twain