McCarthyism of the left? Clinton supporters use anti-Russia rhetoric to bash opponents
RT.com
4 Sep, 2016
They’re not donning poodle skirts or leather jackets, but to many Democrats and liberals, it seems the 1950s never went out of fashion. “Neo-McCarthyism” is how some describe a tactic widely adopted by Clinton supporters affiliating Trump with the Kremlin.
Named after Senator Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin, who held the position from 1947 to 1957, McCarthyism is a term meant to symbolize a personal crusade of guilt by association against political opponents, often in terms of sedition or treason, when there is little or no evidence to support what essentially amounts to a witch hunt. This is a strong picture of what was happening during the height of the Cold War.
McCarthy, a Republican, was long held up by Democrats and others on the political left as the poster boy of right-wing political persecution. In recent memory, in the run-up to and in the early years of the Iraq War, there was justifiably a lot of talk of “new McCarthyism” from backers of President George W. Bush charging progressives with being “anti-military” or sympathetic to terrorists.
In this most bizarre presidential election of the modern era, however, there has been a switch of roles. Now it is mostly Democrats accusing Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump or other adversarial forces of being aligned with the Russian government or specifically its president, Vladimir Putin.
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