McCarthy and Modern Republicanism, An Outline Essay

In February of 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy made a speech with the purpose of accusing democratic representative, Alger Hiss, of working with the communist Soviets in order to convince the American people to support the Republican party. McCarthy convinces his audience by using syntactical devices, such as anaphoras, rhetorical questions, and parallelism.

Joseph McCarthy, senator of Wisconsin. Senator McCarthy was in Democratic Party, however he switched to Republican Party later, because the Democratic Party neglected McCarthy's position. McCarthy had a plan for his career. Joining the marine during war is one of the strategies for himself to become a better candidate. Afterwards, McCarthy won the election by damaging another candidate's reputation. Furthermore, while America was in the recovery of WWII. The major outcome of WWII is Soviet Union occupied most of the west European countries and began practice communism. Americans worried they might end up like other European countries instead of continue democracy. At the same time, McCarthy promoted anti communism and witch-hunt was popular

He is cited warning the majority of both the Democratic and Republican parties, “Should any political party attempt to abolish Social Security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farms programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history” (Gilmore 58). Eisenhower’s main programs included the New Deal and urban renewal projects that included hospitals, civic centers, and universities. Additionally, Eisenhower began the largest public works project of all time, The Interstate Highway system. The project was designed to connect America though a series of super highways and increase expansion to every corner of the nation. Although this program was mainly for defense purposes, making it difficult for a single strike to cripple America’s defense, it also increased over all GDP (gross domestic profit) through realest developing and shopping malls.

The Progressive Era was a time characterized by a multitude of reactions to the inherent problems in American society and politics. The previous age of “gilded” politics had left the American political system fraught with corruption and inefficiency, and the rise of industrialization made clear the socioeconomic divide between the lower and upper classes. Progressivism became a loosely connected movement of legislation, ideas, and people striving to improve the welfare of the American people and to embark on a path of sustainable modernization. Much of this was spearheaded by the federal government through liberal legislation and active reformers, such as President Theodore Roosevelt. The goal of this investigation is to determine the extent to which Republican Party liberalized, as a response to the events of the Progressive Era. The causes of this liberalization, as well as the impact, will also be discussed.

This political cartoon (Document 1) conveys that communism is bringing chaos to Western Europe. Western Europe was being threatened and desperately needed America’s help, thus the United States was in a race against time to save Western Europe. Both the Marshall Plan, an American initiative to assist in the rebuilding of European economies after World War II and the Truman Doctrine, a United States policy to provide aid to help foreign countries

… “ FDR believed that an undue dependence on regular Democratic party would prevent a fundamental alteration of political alignments and …his support of regular patronage practices to reward certain Republican Progressives and other reformers outside the Democratic party…developed a national New Deal Organization.” (55)

In addition to initiating a space race between the two current superpowers, the Sputnik spacecraft launch also had alarming military implications. The Sputnik satellites used intercontinental ballistic missiles that were initially used for their thrust capabilities but could theatrically be capable of flying from the Soviet Union to United States military targets in less than an hour—cutting the flight time to a fraction of a conventional bomber aircraft. In response to the launch of Sputnik, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958. The act created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) . To prevent the rise of Soviet dominance in military matters, Eisenhower also established the Advanced Research Projects Agency, a division of the U.S. Department of Defense. This was symbolic of a serious revelation of the standing of the scientific and technological capabilities of America in comparison to other countries, and also led to President Eisenhower issuing a proclamation to increase funding for education in America in science and engineering to combat this widening deficit. The quick Soviet lead in the newly emerging space race caused much panic, which shaped American foreign policy for the following decade(Document E). An example is avoiding “an all-out war with China” for fear of having to combat communism on two fronts.(Document

His demagogue tendencies had no evidence. Document 2 is a speech made by McCarthy about communism. He says, “In less than 6 years, the odds have changed from 9 to 1 in our favor to 8 to 5 against us.” These staggering numbers of over 400 percent would certainly provoke fear among the people. He also claimed to have a list of 57 people in the state department known to be members of the American Communist Party.

Joseph McCarthy was a United States senator in the mid twentieth century who believed that the communists were taking over the State Department and were shaping the foreign

At the time of the Republican nomination, the Republican party was deeply divided into two groups. The conservative wing lead by “Senator Robert Taft of Ohio [which was] committed to abolishing the social welfare state established by the New Deal” (Schake), and supported isolationism. The other group, the Dewey Wing, was lead by “New York Governor Thomas Dewey…[who] commanded Republicans…[to accept] the social welfare state and international interventionism to prevent the spread of Soviet communism” (Schake). The Conservative and the Dewey Wing were vehement against each other securing the Republican nominee as the “conservatives within the party denounced the Dewey wing as willing to compromise their values…[and] Dewey’s partisans fretted that purists would prevent Republicans from being electable at the national level” (Schake). By then, “three candidates [had] put themselves forward: Taft, California Governor Earl Warren, and former Minnesota Senator Harold Stassen. Republican operatives on the other hand yearned for someone widely admired but not considered a politician: General Dwight Eisenhower” (Schake), who was a recognized war hero, prominently for being the general of the Allied Forces during World War II. He was loved by the people and respected by both

A series of high profile spy scandals, like that of Alger Hiss, were reported in the press. It also became clear that the USSR's rapid progress in mastering atomic energy had been aided by information gathered by spies from the US nuclear program. Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy, grabbed the headlines by declaring in early 1950 that the Truman administration was infiltrated by Communist agents and sympathisers. A modern-day witch-hunt broke out, with widespread panic ensuing. Anti-communist feeling intensified and many people, especially the Republican opposition, claimed that the government was not being tough enough on Communism,

Throughout the early 1950's, the nation was deeply engrossed in fears of a Communist takeover. At a time when America's fears were at their very height, Joseph McCarthy, a Republican Senator from Wisconsin pushed America's fears to an extreme. As a ploy to get himself re-elected, and to make America hate Communism as much as he did, the Senator devised a devious scheme. McCarthy, while giving a speech, held up a piece of paper and exclaimed, "I have here a list of 57 known Communists who are currently employed by the U.S. State Department" (Fried, 89). A few days later, McCarthy raised the number of people on the list from 57 to 205. The reaction to McCarthy's announcement was absolute panic. Until that time, the

He says he had to do extensive amounts of research to find out who these people were and justify their communist party affiliation or if they were simply just suspicious. McCarthy claimed none of his accusations were made up on the spot or said without proper evidence (McCarthy 129-131). When asked about why he went to such extreme methods to remove hidden communists from government, McCarthy claimed it was the only option he had to get the job done. He had tried going to the President and going through the Tydings committee, but they assumed that McCarthy was trying a cheap political trick in an attempt to make them look bad (McCarthy 135-136). The senator had to resort to gaining the attention of the American people and win their support in exposing members of the Communist

The Movie “good night good luck” is incredibly historically accurate. The Movie uses authentic clips that show McCarthy and many speeches Murrow used. World War ended in 1945 leaving a broken Europe and a communist block behind. The United States quickly receded back to the red scare that had existed before WWII. The United States quickly set an anti-communist stance and prepared for a war against the communists. While the war never came some enterprising individuals placed themselves in powerful positions using the paranoia created. Among these individuals one came forward and began one of the most controversial historical programs. Joe McCarthy a nobody Wisconsin’s junior senator made his name when he gave a speech claiming his

When Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Liberal President, attempted to make Supreme Court all liberal democrats, the conservatives from both parties, Democrats and Republicans, tried to prove that FDR was forming a dictatorship.