RE: Anticommunism and McCarthyism (#11397)
by Stephen Tootle on April 24, 2003 at 5:52 PM

I should have said conservatism "should," but we are talking about ideals. I am going to stick with my assertion that McCarthyism is not in keeping with the values of conservatism. Sometimes Liberals aren't so liberal. Sometimes Conservatives aren't so conservative. That doesn't taint the ideal. "An American conservative seeks to preserve the founding values" is not pep rally sloganeering. I am describing the one of the most commonly-stated ideals of conservatism.
The more important point regarding the relationship between McCarthyism and Anticommunism is that not all anticommunists were McCarthyites. Think of the difference between Nixon and McCarthy. Eisenhower drew a sharp distinction between those two. Perhaps we should too.