I got plenty disturbed last Friday afternoon watching "Hardball" on MSNBC with Chris Matthews. Politics is usually the topic du jour, and one of his guests that day was a U.S. Congressperson from Minnesota, Michele Bachmann, who accused Barack Obama and other members of Congress with having anti-American or unpatriotic views and should be investigated. Thankfully, Katrina vanden Heuvel, publisher of The Nation magazine followed Bachmann's rant and with an angry, impassioned response put it in very plain terms what this would mean - McCarthyism !
This country has operated quite well with divergent views since its inception, much like a pendulum swinging back and forth between left and right philosophies. If the U. S. of A. operated like Bachmann seems to want, we might as well call our system an oligarchy where a small group exercises control, much like we have been seeing in the Bush Administration and the financial system, both of which are corrupt and in shambles.
I am old enough to remember the period of McCarthyism when Senator Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin made wild charges, something that was not very comfortable to watch. He made the accusation that more than 200 Communists worked in the State Department and were committing traitorous actions. Subsequent investigations found no Communists, but he started the ball of rumor and innuendo rolling and went on to drag many before the House Un-American Activities Committee and asked the familiar question, "Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?" His tirades continued until finally the Senate condemned him for "conduct unbecoming a member." I don't know what fate awaits Ms. Bachmann, but there is already a petition circulating to tell Congress to censure her.
