What Is McCarthy?
FLANDERS, SENATOR RALPH E.
Senator Ralph E. Flanders: What Is McCarthy? EDITORIAL This week's New Leader editorial is a speech delivered by The junior Senator from Wisconsin interests us all--there can be no doubt about...
...The neighbors across the backyard fence are apprised of each newly discovered deposit of grime...
...This will not need to be accomplished by defeating us militarily...
...Much of this in his long life has the junior Senator from Vermont seen and heard, but he has never seen or heard anything to match the dust and racket of this particular job of housecleaning...
...In this battle of the age-long war, what is the part played by the junior Senator from Wisconsin...
...We will be left with no place to trade and no place to go, except as we are permitted to trade and to go by the Communist masters of the world...
...It will result from the capture of the rest of the world by infiltration and subversion...
...Of course, the attack may come from the air--sudden, catastrophic...
...We find France irresolute, palsied in thought and action, with her Communists well organized and sure of their ground...
...In very truth, the world seems to be mobilizing for the great battle of Armageddon...
...There is little need to spotlight the other trouble spots in Asia and in Africa...
...I feel] called upon to say to the junior Senator from Wisconsin, "Right about face...
...He dons his war paint...
...Of course, it was not done quietly...
...Now is a crisis in the age-long warfare between God and the Devil for the souls of men...
...We find the same aggression pursued in Indo-China, with our country assigned to play the part of a supporter of colonialism, and persuaded to enter into negotiations which are foredoomed to parallel, to a greater or less extent, the foreordained conclusions of the Korean truce...
...He no longer claims or wants any support from the Communist fringe...
...We may assume that this presents the depth and seriousness of Communist penetration at this time...
...He emits his war whoops...
...Into these dirty premises the junior Senator from Wisconsin charged with all the energy and enthusiasm of a natural-born housekeeper...
...EDITORIAL This week's New Leader editorial is a speech delivered by The junior Senator from Wisconsin interests us all--there can be no doubt about that--but also he puzzles some of us...
...Having looked inward so long, let him now look outward...
...Other countries, not yet captured, are undergoing relentless infiltration...
...But there are likewise, alas, spreading infections of Communism...
...To what party does he belong...
...He found dirt behind the chiffonier...
...The junior Senator from Vermont finds much to praise and much to deplore in McCarthyism, as he sees it displayed on the national stage...
...When he and we look outward, what do we see...
...All this dirt he found and displayed, and the clean-up he personally superintended...
...In Europe, we see Italy ready to fall into Communist hands...
...We the distinguished Republican Senator from Vermont: see defeat in Korea, and the Iron Curtain moved down to the truce line by force of arms, in defiance of the principles and purposes of the United Nations...
...This is possible, though unlikely, for why should the Soviet Government subject the Russian cities to destruction when it is doing so well by infiltration and subversion...
...It is [my] deep conviction that we are being diverted, and to an extent dangerous to our future as a nation...
...He goes into his war dance...
...Whole countries are being taken over...
...It does not seem that his Republican label can be stuck on very tightly, when, by intention or through ignorance, he is doing his best to shatter the party whose label he wears...
...There is much clatter and hullabaloo...
...Perhaps these extremes are necessary if a one-man party is to be kept in the headlines and in the limelight...
...If this massive advance is not stemmed, our future place in the world is clearly foreordained: The Iron Curtain, now protecting Communist countries, will be drawn about the United States and Canada, the last remnants of the free world...
...In the long years of my life, I have come to the conclusion that natural-born housewives seldom work quietly--particularly when cleaning premises left by someone else...
...That which is praiseworthy is the vigorous and effective housecleaning which it undertakes...
...Saddest of all, we see Great Britain nibbling at the drugged bait of trade profits, which benumbed her judgments when Japan moved into Manchuria and Mussolini moved into Ethiopia...
...The premises were dirty indeed...
...In January of last year, the Republican family moved into quarters which had been occupied by another family for twenty long years...
...He found dirt in all the corners...
...What is his party affiliation...
...One must conclude that his is a one-man party, and that its name is "McCarthyism," a title which he has proudly accepted...
...He found cobwebs and spiders in the cellarway...
...The outgoing family did not clean up before it left...
...Let us look to the south...
...Then followed, in logical sequence, the fall of the Rhineland, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland, and the Second World War...
...He goes forth to battle and proudly returns with the scalp of a pink Army dentist...
...He found dirt under the rug...
...Is he a hidden satellite of the Democratic party, to which he is furnishing so much material for quiet mirth...
...In Latin America, there are sturdy strong-points of freedom...
...In either case, the dangerous attack is from without, not from within...
...Now the question before the nation is this: Is the necessary housecleaning the great task before the United States, or do we face far more dangerous problems, from the serious consideration of which we are being diverted by the dust and the racket...
Vol. 37 • March 1954 • No. 12
