The new McCarthyism

By Libby

Apparently mistaking a recent Hardball appearance as an audition to become the latest face of reckless demagoguery, Rep. Michele Bachman gave voice to the most rabid and vile imaginings of the increasingly violent GOP base. She hints darkly of widespread anti-Americanism within the Congressional chambers. The video is at the link, I can't bring myself to repeat it here.

Immediately after the segment, Katrina Vandenheuvel issues the appropriate, and surprisingly impassioned, rebuke.

Chris, I fear for my country. I think what we just heard is a congresswoman channeling Joe McCarthy, channeling a politics of fear and loathing and demonization and division and distraction. Not a single issue mentioned. This is a politics at a moment of extreme economic pain in this country that is incendiary, that is so debased, that I'm almost having a hard time breathing, because I think it's very scary.

Bachman's hateful remarks are not only scary, they verge on criminally irresponsible. I think she should be immediately censured by her peers. If you agree, join concerned Americans and sign the petition and pass the link on. The signators have already doubled in number in the last few hours.

(Cross-posted at The Impolitic)

Comments

[LaPopessa]

Isn't she something? Wow! I guess I should have anticipated a return of McCarthism given the attitudes Palin/McCain have been encouraging. But wow, this was just amazing, wasn't it.

[Libby]

Frightening LaP. I'm afraid of what will happen when Obama wins.

[Dave Nichols]

Bachman's comments were vapid, paranoid, and hateful (and have apparently led to a dramatic increase in her opponent's fundraising), but I wouldn't call them "McCarthyite." Rep. Bachman isn't calling for a Congressional investigation into her peers' political views, nor is she talking about blacklists or purges or criminalizing political behavior. She is merely - and somewhat lamely, given the overheated nature of her rhetoric through most of the interview - calling for a media investigation of "anti-Americanism" in Congress. I think the media should call Bachman's bluff. Then, when the news networks affirm that virtually all of the members of Congress are intensely patriotic, Bachman and her friends can go back to blithering about the "liberal media."