Are You Now or Have You Ever Been...
We have enough real problems and real enemies in the world that we don't need to make some up. But the Washington Post has an article on the new McCarthyism. I've talked about this before but it is helpful to summarize what President Bush's White House senior political advisor Karl Rove does.
It comes down to this kind of question that Rove, and neo-McCarthyites like him, like to use: Will or will not Karl Christian Rove stop having sex with furry farm animals? Yes or no? Will he or won't he? There is no gray area. Either he will or he won't. Answer the question. The American people have a right to know. Will he stop having sex with furry farm animals? Michelle Malkin is all over this story.
Obviously, this presupposes he is having sex with furry farm animals. If he isn't, and I have no evidence to believe he is, trying to answer such a question is a no win situation. That's why he and others of his ilk like to use such tactics. It immediately puts the target on the defensive.
From there, you then segue to asking: When are you going
to stop being a
socialist/communist/liberal/Jewish/black/Hispanic/insert your
choice here? Don't you realize that the events of September
11th changed everything? How can you be
socialist/communist/liberal/Jewish/black/Hispanic/insert your
choice here after the 9/11 murders caused by the Iraqi
terrorists Saudi Arabian terrorists and their weapons
of mass destruction our airplanes?
During his time, US Senator Joseph McCarthy really asked these types of crude questions. But the dirty secret was that it worked. People were afraid of the power that he grew to have. Until, that is, enough patriots stood up to the playground bully. Once it became clear that the accusations were false, the accuser had no power to hold the stage and left in disgrace.
When will that happen to the neo-McCarthyites I don't know. But it can't come too soon.
Aloha!