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On June 9, 1954, the Army’s chief legal representative Joseph Welch called out Joseph McCarthy for his latest attack: "Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, Sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"
Wisconsin Republican Senator McCarthy burst into the public spotlight in 1950 with allegations that hundreds of Communists were working in the State Department and other federal agencies. After years of exploiting the fear of Communism, ramping up false accusations, and investigating homosexuals, McCarthy became chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. McCarthy, with his chief counsel Roy Cohn (who would mentor and represent Donald Trump decades later), turned the subcommittee into a partisan quest to find Communists.
In 1954, McCarthy went after the US Army, questioning the security at a top-secret Army facility. In return, the Army accused McCarthy of pressuring them to give favorable treatment to a former staff member. The Army-McCarthy hearings followed from April-June 1954. The hearings were televised to over 20 million Americans who witnessed 36 days of McCarthy’s cruelty, recklessness, and unsubstantiated claims. After the hearings and subsequently being censured by the Senate, McCarthy’s favorability among Americans plummeted and he faded as a major public figure.
Since 2015, Donald Trump has elevated McCarthyism to an extreme that we have become desensitized to. Trump has spread dangerous lies and conspiracy theories, railed against experts, the media, and those in government, scapegoated immigrants, engaged in multiple attacks on democracy and the rule of law, and radicalized his supporters to carry out his violent urges.
With the presidency once again within his grasp and presidential immunity granted by the US Supreme Court, Trump will go even further. Trump will pardon himself of all criminal charges, install loyalists in the State Department and FBI, enact a national abortion ban, deport millions of immigrants, abandon our allies on the world stage, and has pledged retribution on his opponents. These are just some of the terrifying actions that will end American democracy as we know it.
In this election, the choice is clear. Kamala Harris is the pro-democracy candidate who will provide stability, stand up to dictators, and fight for the American people regardless of party. We know Donald Trump has no decency. But do we, the American people, still have any sense of decency, at long last?
