Decades before Trump’s election lies, McCarthy’s anti-communist fever gripped the GOP

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Former President Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a rally at the Iowa State Fairgrounds on Oct. 9 in Des Moines. The GOP agenda now includes the false notion that the 2020 election was somehow stolen.





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Politics
Trump continues to lie, says ‘real insurrection’ happened when he lost election


Trump’s political ransom note


The baldest and most provocative presentation of Trump’s demand to date appeared on his campaign website «Save America» on Oct. 13:

«If we don’t solve the Presidential Election Fraud of 2020 (which we have thoroughly and conclusively documented), Republicans will not be voting in ’22 or ’24. It is the single most important thing for Republicans to do.»

That statement from the former president suggested his party’s leaders must match their priorities to his or face a mass defection by party loyalists — whom he plainly regards as Trump loyalists first.

Polls suggest Trump is not wrong about that, which explains the discomfort and deference of all those hamstrung Republican officials. They know better than anyone how beholden they are to Trump’s troops. Every sounding of Republican opinion since the election shows stark majorities have been convinced the election results weren’t right.





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Former President Donald Trump endorsed Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley during a rally at the Iowa State Fairgrounds on Oct. 9 in Des Moines.





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Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin testifies during hearings in Washington, D.C., on June 9, 1954. McCarthy stands before a map which charts alleged communist activity in the United States.





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For a time, press attention on Joseph McCarthy kept getting bigger, unrestrained by the lack of proof of his accusations.





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Sen. Joe McCarthy is seen during the Army-McCarthy hearings, June 7, 1954 in Washington, D.C. On the right is McCarthy’s chief counsel, Roy Cohn.





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Analysis
President Trump Called For Roy Cohn, But Roy Cohn Was Gone

In the end, both McCarthy and Trump were puzzles for other power figures in the party because their phenomenal success seemed so improbable as to be inexplicable. Both got a grip on base voters and American conservatives that defied their seeming limitations and glaring contradictions.

The power of McCarthyism and Trumpism is such that it will survive the men themselves. Trump’s followers are at least as likely to remain focused on him as were McCarthy’s, as Gage wrote in December:

«Today’s Republican establishment may ultimately repudiate the man who has held it in thrall — and in fear — for four-plus years. But it is Trump’s base, and their interpretation of his ouster from Washington, that will determine the future of Trumpism.»