The Tea Party's 'My Way or the Highway' Candidate Strategy is Pure Old School

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The Tea Party’s ‘My Way or the Highway’ Candidate Strategy is Pure Old School

Carl Bernstein is best known for his role, along with fellow Washington Post investigative reporter Bob Woodward, in exposing the Watergate scandal back in the early 70′s. The story created a sensation and ultimately turned into a Pulitzer Prize for each reporter. That led them to co-author the riveting “All the President’s Men.” The book was followed by a movie of the same title starring Robert Redford as Woodward and Dustin Hoffman, playing the part of Bernstein.

But that certainly was not where it stopped for Bernstein. He’s had a full and accomplished literary career outside of Watergate. Thanks to my eldest son, who follows such things, I recently read a book that he sent me, among other things, for Christmas. It was somewhat less known than “All the President’s Men.” The latter having spent six months on the NY Times best-seller list. The title of my son’s gift was “Loyalties: A Son’s Memoir.” Simon and Schuster published it. It hit bookstores early 1990. The book is mostly about Bernstein’s mother and father and their circle of primarily Jewish friends and their flirtation with the Communist Party back in the Truman-McCarthy era. It tells of the constant harassment of suspected communists and expands on Harry Truman’s infamous Executive Order 9835, generally referred to as the “Loyalty Order.” The Washington DC Jewish political culture of the time serves as the centerpiece.

You should be able to pick up “Loyalties” cheap. I checked Amazon and a used paperback starts at a minimum of a penny; a used hardcover is 8 cents and up. The new editions are a bargain as well. Don’t forget shipping costs.

What makes “Loyalties” so fascinating is its current application to the political happenings of 2014. There are innumerable parallels to the communist witch-hunt of 60 odd years ago and the current climate of equal suspicions, dictatorial political imperatives, vengeful punishments, ignominious expulsions and heartless, lifelong ruination of reputations and careers of many high-quality people.

A little background on Harry Truman’s Executive Order, signed in March of 1947, will be instructive in this context. It was born out of the fear of communists in the federal government and the prospect that our Cold War enemy of the time might develop the atomic bomb before the U.S. had a chance to unleash it’s deadly power on hundreds of thousands of innocent Japanese civilians. Over 3 million federal employees were investigated under the order. An estimated 300 were shown the door.

Full article here: http://www.politicususa.com/2014/02/13/tea-partys-my-highway-candidate-strategy-pure-school.html