Why is Trump portrayed as a Russian puppet?
An escalating mainstream media campaign depicts President Trump as Russia’s puppet in the White House. One need not be a Trump enthusiast to call out these preposterous, fact-free allegations as reminiscent of McCarthyism. Efforts to portray Trump as a Manchurian candidate — from the classic Cold War book and film where a U.S.soldier is brainwashed into doing the Kremlin’s bidding — endangers shredding more remnants of American democracy. It’s also disconcerting that Russia-baiting is on the increase.
McCarthyism, of course, refers to the use of government investigations to destroy one’s enemies. Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy is famous for brandishing this tactic, and will forever be associated with the question, “Are you now or have you ever been” a member of the Communist Party?
McCarthy’s witch hunts went on until June 9, 1954, when Joseph Welch, special counsel to the U.S. Army, listened during a hearing in which McCarthy accused the Army of being “soft on communism.”
In dramatic fashion, the usually mild-mannered Welch asked, “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?”
When combined with CBS News correspondent Edward R. Murrow’s reporting, this was McCarthy’s downfall from politics. He was officially censured by the U.S. Senate on Dec. 2, 1954.
Of course the Red Scare didn’t end there. The FBI secretly provided files to the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee, which proceeded to destroy the careers of countless people.
Another example was the National Defense Education Act of 1958, which required signing a loyalty oath to obtain a college loan. I confess to signing one or forgo attending college. Teachers were forced to sign an oath stating, “I have not and will not lend my aid, support, advice, counsel or influence to the Communist Party.” Is it implausible to suggest that variations on this anti-democratic attack on civil liberties will re-emerge?
In the past, the FBI has carried out many fact-free politically-motivated investigations. In the 1930s and later under President Truman, the agency regarded liberal, pro-peace Vice President Henry Wallace as having suspect loyalties for suggesting the government was exaggerating the Soviet threat. Wallace’s mail was opened and photo- copied, his phone was tapped and his movements shadowed.
Ashort list also includes: Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern, Martin Luther King Jr., Paul Robeson, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, anti-Vietnam War marchers, Albert Einstein, Gil Scott-Heron, the NAACP, opponents of South African apartheid, The Catholic Worker, Quaker activists, and even Duke Ellington and Nat King Cole. Later, Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter and hip-hop artists entered the list, and the FBI recently set up a task force to monitor social media.
So why are these nefarious tactics now being unleashed against Trump? The first McCarthy period used red- baiting to destroy the U.S. labor movement.
This second one is quite different. It’s an intra-elite effort to discredit a president whose erratic behavior has rattled members of the political/military/intelligence/corporate establishment that much preferred the more compliant Hillary Clinton in 2016.
For them, Trump’s pledge to withdraw troops from Syria and Afghanistan, attempts to officially end the Korean War, raising questions about NATO’s utility and his refusal to rekindle the Cold War with Russia crossed a line and constitutes treasonable behavior.
In short, those with direct economic interests in the global status quo know their empire is in decline and desperately want to retain America’s 800 military bases. They’re vexed that Trump’s “America First” agenda may always embrace that objective.
There are no “good guys” here as neither side cares about working folks at home or abroad. This narrative pits the interventionist, endless war, “we rule the world” capitalists against the xenophobic, racist, nationalistic capitalists.
But that’s not to say there isn’t something terribly important at stake here. That is, fighting the good fight must include resisting what resembles an FBI/police state operation — no matter who is the target.
There’s more than a whiff of neoMcCarthyism in the air, and if left unchecked it will have a chilling effect on freedom of expression and speech. If politically motivated, evidence-free allegations can be leveled against the president of the United States, what can’t be done to the rest of us?
In sum, this isn’t about Trump’s fate but our own. Where is our Joseph Welch or Edward R. Murrow?