As a country, we forget what Franklin Delano Roosevelt taught us: “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” People are falling prey to the nasty fearmongering tactics of politicians and are forgetting that fear is the enemy. Some politicians seem to want to make us believe that certain minority groups are the enemy and that we as Americans should be afraid of the direction our country is going. This only distracts from the real issues. What we should fear are the scaremongers and their rise in popularity.
Joseph McCarthy, a Republican U.S. senator from Wisconsin, served from 1947-1957 and was a perfect example of a fearmonger. He served in the Senate during the beginning of the Cold War, at which time communism was a real threat to America. McCarthy instilled fear into the American people and offered himself as a solution to the communist threat by portraying himself as a fighter who would expose communists working within our government. By doing this, he gained a following nationwide, giving him a platform where he falsely accused hundreds of people of being communists. McCarthy caused huge amounts of grief and anxiety across the country and ended up exposing zero real communists.
Upon McCarthy’s death, the anti-communist movement lacked a leader, and Robert Welch soon came onto the scene to carry the flag. He founded the John Birch Society in 1958 to continue the fight against communism. Since the ‘50s, the organization has shifted its focus from anti-communist rhetoric to other issues with more relevance today. Although the content of the group’s message is different, the delivery remains the same. For example, the group believes that “the UN is at the hub of a global network working to submerge the independence of all nations in a world government controlled by the elites.” In addition, they “advocate abolishing the Federal Reserve,” believe that America is “the playground to foreign espionage and subversion” and that pro-socialist conspiracies are “working against the independence of the United States.” These quotes are taken straight from their website and reflect a few of their opinions on certain issues.
The John Birch Society, based in Appleton, Wis. (also the birthplace of Joseph McCarthy, no coincidence there) still exerts influence to this day in the Republican Party. Although its power is not as great as it once was, it is growing.
This, I think, is a real reason to be afraid. An organization founded based on the principles of a madman currently exerting influence in today’s elections is a scary thought. To drive this point home, one of the founding members of the John Birch Society was Fred C. Koch, the father of Charles G. and David H. Koch and the founder of Koch Industries.
Koch Industries is now owned by Fred C. Koch’s sons, who donate millions of dollars to libertarian and conservative think tanks, climate change skepticism groups and Republicans campaigning across the country through the Koch Family Foundation. This is just one example of the influence that the John Birch Society still has on politics today.
In the current presidential race, the field is flooded with candidates, but two stick out on top: Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. Trump is currently at 34.5 percent of the popular vote nationwide, and Cruz is second with 19.3 percent of the vote. Both Trump and Cruz represent the politically paranoid and have similarities to McCarthy. If people didn’t agree with McCarthy, he called them communists. If people don’t agree with Trump, he calls them stupid. McCarthy was completely irrational in his communist witch hunts, and Cruz says he would carpet bomb the Middle East.
These individuals are doing essentially the same thing that Joseph McCarthy did back in the 1950s: They are instilling fear. McCarthy eventually crashed and burned and lost favor, but only after creating other problems and inducing substantial amounts of fear. I would like to avoid having chaos in my life and my country.
We must learn from our history and avoid the same mistakes again. Trump, McCarthy and Cruz are very similar in their political rhetoric, and history has shown us that Joseph McCarthy was a disaster; Trump or Cruz would be too. McCarthyism caused more harm than good. Let’s not find out about how much damage Trumpism or Cruzism would do.
Do you think we need to be worried about fearmongering in the upcoming election? Do you agree with Thomas? Please send all comments and concerns to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
