Phenomenon of McCarthyism - Essay Example

Originally formed only to criticize the anti-communist motions of U.S. Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, McCarthyism was taken on a broader sense in pursuit of describing the intemperance of similar efforts. The McCarthyism movement greatly affected the lives of the people in the U.S. Tens of thousands of Americans were charged with being communists or communist sympathizers during the McCarthy epoch. They had to undergo aggressive investigations and questioning before the government and private industry boards, committees, and bureaus.

Besides, in the realm of social policy, McCarthyism seems to have stopped the much-needed reforms at midstream. Measures including national health insurance, a social reform held up by the rest of the industrialized world, just fell by the pavement. There were chances that the left-liberal political alliance would have implemented health reforms and similar proposals, but the sanguinity was torn apart by the crusades of anti-communist movements. The moderates were against anything that seemed radical and the people who were left to them were always either to no avail or under exploitation. The McCarthyism movement again had put into an attenuation of the reformation impulse by diverting public attention from the labor movement. McCarthyism not only affected the lives and political thinking of the people in the U.S. but also had an impact on international affairs. The antagonism against the cold war had been so thoroughly identified with communism. The nation’s cultural and social life was also suffered by McCarthyism.

Moreover, even after the anti-Communist uproar s retreated, the antidemocratic associated with the earlier continued to affect the citizens. It can be traced from the COINELPRO programs of prosecuting political rebels throughout the 1960s, and the Watergate-related misdemeanors in the 1970s, and the Iran-Contra issues in the 1980s (Schrecker, 2002, p.106). McCarthyism was not the only cause for these outrages. The assault on democracy that started during the 1940s and its collaborations with other private institutions and public agencies posing domestic communism also contributed to the issues. Read More