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[edit] History
[edit] 20th century
Red-baiting was employed in opposition to anarchists in the United States as early as the late 1870s when businessmen, religious leaders and editorial writers tried to rally middle class workers to oppose dissident railroad workers and again during the Haymarket affair in the mid-1880s. Red-baiting was well established in the U.S. during the decade before World War I. In the post-war period of 1919-1921 the U.S. government employed it as a central tactic in dealing with labor radicals, anarchists, communists, and foreign agents. These actions in reaction to the First Red Scare, served as part of the organizing principle shaping counter-revolutionary policies and serving to institutionalize anti-communism as a force in American politics.[5]The period between the first and second Red Scares was relatively calm owing to the success of government anti-communism, the suppressive effects of New Deal policies on radical organized labor, and the patriotism associated with total mobilization during World War II.[5] Red-baiting reemerged in the late 1940s and early 1950s during the period known as the Second Red Scare due to mounting Cold War tensions and the spread of communism abroad. U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy's controversial red-baiting of suspected communists and communist sympathizers in the U.S. Department of State, and the creation of an entertaintment industry blacklist, led to the term “McCarthyism” being coined to signify any type of reckless political persecution or witch-hunt.[6]
The history of anti-communist red-baiting in general and McCarthyism in particular continues to be hotly debated, and the political divisions this controversy creates continue to make themselves felt. Conservative critics contend that revelations such as the Venona project decryptions and the FBI Silvermaster File at least mute if not outright refute the charge that red-baiting in general was unjustified.[7][8] Historian Nicholas von Hoffman wrote in The Washington Post that evidence revealed in the Venona project forced him to admit that McCarthy was "closer to the truth than those who ridiculed him".[9]
Liberal critics contend that, even if it was proven that the U.S. government was infiltrated by Soviet spies, McCarthy was censured by the U.S. Senate because he was in fact reckless and politically opportunistic, and his red-baiting ruined the lives of countless innocent persons.[10] Historian Ellen Schrecker wrote that "in this country, McCarthyism did more damage to the constitution than the American Communist Party ever did."[11]
[edit] 21st century
In the 21st century, red-baiting does not have quite the same effect it previously did due to the fall of Soviet-style Communism,[12] but notable events in 21st century American politics indicates a resurgence of red-baiting consistent with the 1950s.[13] Political activist and author Tim Wise argues that the emergence of red-baiting may be motivated by racism towards U.S. President Barack Obama and fear that the progressive policies of his administration will erode white privilege in the United States.[13]Red-baiting was used[citation needed] by John McCain, Republican presidential nominee in the 2008 United States election, when he argued that Democratic nominee and current president Obama's improvised comments on wealth redistribution to “Joe the Plumber” was a promotion of “socialism”. American journalist David Remnick, who wrote the biography The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama,[14] countered that it should now be obvious that after one year in office Obama is a centre-left president and the majority of his policies are in line with the center-left Democrat tradition.[15]
In April 2009, Spencer Bachus claimed that 17 of his Congressional colleagues were socialists, but would only name one, Bernie Sanders, who has been openly describing himself as a democratic socialist for years.[16] Sanders countered that American conservatives blur the differences between socialism and communism, between democracy and totalitarianism. He argued that the United States would benefit from a serious debate about comparing the quality of life for the middle class in the U.S. and in Nordic countries with a long social-democratic tradition like Sweden, Norway, and Finland.[17]
In May 2009, a number of conservative members of the Republican National Committee were pressing the committee and by extension, RNC chairman Michael Steele, to officially adopt the position that the Democratic Party is socialist. Over a dozen members of the conservative wing of the RNC submitted a new resolution, to be eventually voted on by the entire RNC, that would call on the Democratic party to rename itself the “Democrat Socialist Party.” If the RNC adopted this resolution, the RNC’s official view would become that Democrats are socialists.[18]
From the resolution:
| “ | RESOLVED, that we the members of the Republican National Committee call on the Democratic Party to be truthful and honest with the American people by acknowledging that they have evolved from a party of tax and spend to a party of tax and nationalize and, therefore, should agree to rename themselves the Democrat Socialist Party.[19] | ” |
In July 2009, talk show host Glenn Beck began to devote what would become many episodes on his TV and radio shows, focusing on President Obama's Director of White House Council on Environmental Quality, Van Jones. Beck was especially critical of Jones' involvement in STORM, a far-left groupuscule of professional revolutionaries and therefore referred to him as a "communist-anarchist radical".[22] In September 2009, Jones resigned his position in the Obama administration, after a number of his past statements became fodder for conservative critics and Republican officials.[22] Time magazine credited Beck with leading conservatives' attack on Jones,[23] which Jones would characterize a "vicious smear campaign" and an effort to use "lies and distortions to distract and divide".[24]
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