The Reincarnation of Joseph McCarthy -- Congressman King

[Judi Lynn]

Posted: December 30, 2010 02:30 PM
The Reincarnation of Joseph McCarthy -- Congressman King

Peter King is the envy of (a) former Senator Joseph McCarthy and (b) the folks in Salem, MA who were looking for, respectively, communists and witches. It was a hard task that they each attacked with persistence and fortitude. It was hard because to the untutored eye, witches and communists look just like the rest of us, making it difficult to distinguish them from the general population. Nonetheless, the folks in Salem and Joe were diligent in their efforts. There was, of course, always a possibility that the person identified as a witch or a communist was not in fact a witch or a communist but there was also the possibility that he or she was, and that made it all worthwhile from the inquisitors' points of view.

The Salem Witch Trials took place in 1692 and 1693. More than 150 people were arrested and accused of witchcraft and a number were convicted. Witchcraft was, as one would expect, a capital offense, and several of those convicted were hanged. With the benefit of hindsight one can safely assume that most, if not all of those hanged, were not witches but as in all matters involving capital punishment, learning that the executed were innocent after they have been hanged makes very little difference to the executed and has never been considered by Americans to be a reason to eliminate the death penalty.

One of the next hunts for witches occurred in the 1950s and the man who served as the official huntsman was Senator Joe McCarthy. The senator's goal was to identify Communists in the United States. The fact that the object of the hunt could not readily be identified did nothing to deter McCarthy, who made accusations against all manner of people, many of whom were not communists but might as well have been since their careers were irreparably harmed by the accusations. A ruined career was better than being hanged but was nonetheless not a very good outcome. The newest hunter of citizens he believes unworthy of their citizenship is Peter King, a congressman from New York. He has targeted a group that is going to be easy for him to identify -- Muslims. Some, though not all, can be identified by their attire or by physical characteristics.

Mr. King is one of the beneficiaries of the Republican take over of the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress and has been named chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. That committee deals with such things as border security and transportation security and, in addition, has the power to conduct investigations. Its investigative authority has excited Chairman King. He intends to seek out Muslims and find out why they are being such a problem.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christopher-brauchli/the-reincarnation-of-jose_b_802558.html

[RC]

1. The world is not a scary place except for those that insist on making it so.

Stop the wars. All we are doing is making new terrorists so we can continue the wars. Dismantle our war machines and stop equipping others with our war toys. Leave the other countries alone.
Take care of this country's citizens and fix our own crumbling infrastructure first. Watch peace break out.

But that is way too scary for those that need an enemy to even function.