Vernaltide 3: I Know Why Kerry Lost

EVENT

Imagine this, if you will... place it at any point during the last half of the third debate, as part of Kerry's reponse to virtually any question. Proper execution would have mandated "breaking the rules" by making direct eye contact with Bush and holding, but then, such disregard of convention is typical of those who do not flip-flop:

JOHN KERRY: Mr. President... I'm staggered... appalled can scarely begin to describe the impression your answers leave upon me.
You've stood at your podium lying to American people for the last two debates; for the last four years. You've lied about the war in Iraq, our economy, our educational system, you've lied to our seniors and our children, and you've lied with full knowledge that you've been lying.
Have you no sense of decency?

* * * * *

The last sentence will not be lost of several of you. It was spoken on June 9th, 1954 by Special Counsel for the Army, Joseph Welch, in Senate hearings between the army and Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn.

I am unfamiliar with the details of those hearings themselves, but most of us have at least a passing familiarity with Joseph McCarthy as the man who founded the Committee on UnAmerican Activities, fueled the Red Scare in the fifties, and ruined the lives of thousands of people (like Montgomery Clift). Roy Cohn was the guy who broke every rule in the book to execute the Rosenbergs... I'd say he was the Antichrist, but the world hasn't ended yet.

In short, though, McCarthy sustained his own high-profile political career through the skillful manipulation of public opinion. Even from a casual knowledge of fifty distant, I find he has a startling amount in common with Bush (I can't credit myself with this observation; my parents made it first). In both cases, their tactics had a credible foundation. There was nothing light about nuclear proliferation then, nor is Al Qaeda a laughing matter today. Both Bush and McCarthy had an accessibility to most Americans. Most importantly, they both seem to know what keeps us awake at night.

And having said that, I'm at the limits of my knowledge regarding Joseph McCarthy, though I could say much more about Bush.

I've commented recently that political posts are so difficult because so much background is required to say much of anything. I've even got a mild case of pundit envy, and am continually in awe of those bloggers that seem to have digested every commentary on American History from the Civil War on.

Still, I have one resource: you. And I'm going to guilt you into working for me.

You answer those "questions of the day," so you can answer this, and between all of us, we have enough context to say something worthwhile.

Answer the questions, or write more generally. You can post your responses as comments below, or if you want, send me an email [connor at afterdust dot org] and I'll post your answer in full.

What are the parallels between the early aughts and the early fifties?

What are significant differences?

Will Bush meet the same end as Joseph McCarthy; public and political condemnation followed by an early and tragic death?

How is Cohn and McCarthy's Committee parallel to the president's cabinet?

And what are significant differences?

Is the profiling of Arab Americans as potential terrorists comparable to the profiling of the American Left as communist traitors?

What are significant differences?

And what are similaries and differences to the democrats as a counterpoint then and now?

I can't do this crap myself. I'm too young. I admit this.

Let's roll up our sleeves and dig in.

Let's talk about this.

Please.