I like the term, coined as far as I know by Richard Cohen in an Op-Ed piece in the Washington Post. He points out the similarities between Palin's ability to drive the debate on health care as a death panel scare to MacCarthy's ability to drive the debate in Washington as a whole as a red scare.
He's right, in that both debates are trumped up, baseless lies, and are beside any kind of actual point.
He's also right in a way he didn't intend. The red scare was fear mongering and insane, but there was legitimate cause to at least investigate a few people in the State Department and to oust a few sympathizers. What it became--McCarthyism--was a crazy caricature of responsible security.
I am not comfortable with the current direction of Democratic health care reform. The problem is that the only real opposition to their proposals is a crazy caricature of responsible debate.
What to do when the enemies of my enemies are insane?
He's right, in that both debates are trumped up, baseless lies, and are beside any kind of actual point.
He's also right in a way he didn't intend. The red scare was fear mongering and insane, but there was legitimate cause to at least investigate a few people in the State Department and to oust a few sympathizers. What it became--McCarthyism--was a crazy caricature of responsible security.
I am not comfortable with the current direction of Democratic health care reform. The problem is that the only real opposition to their proposals is a crazy caricature of responsible debate.
What to do when the enemies of my enemies are insane?
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