By Robert Parry
Source: https://consortiumnews.com/2017/09/26/the-rise-of-the-new-mccarthyism/
Make no mistake about it: the United States has entered an era
of a New McCarthyism that blames nearly every political problem on Russia and
has begun targeting American citizens who don’t go along with this New Cold War
propaganda.
Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wisconsin, who led the “Red Scare”
hearings of the 1950s.
A difference, however, from the McCarthyism of the 1950s is that
this New McCarthyism has enlisted Democrats, liberals and even progressives in
the cause because of their disgust with President Trump; the 1950s version was
driven by Republicans and the Right with much of the Left on the receiving end,
maligned by the likes of Sen. Joe McCarthy as “un-American” and as Communism’s
“fellow travelers.”
The real winners in this New McCarthyism appear to be the
neoconservatives who have leveraged the Democratic/liberal hatred of Trump to
draw much of the Left into the political hysteria that sees the controversy
over alleged Russian political “meddling” as an opportunity to “get Trump.”
Already, the neocons and their allies have exploited the
anti-Russian frenzy to extract tens of millions of dollars more from the
taxpayers for programs to “combat Russian propaganda,” i.e., funding of
non-governmental organizations and “scholars” who target dissident Americans
for challenging the justifications for this New Cold War.
