Episode 7: Mobilized

Joe McCarthy is renowned for having built a profitable political career by dramatizing the threat of an "enemy within," which in turn created a fervent following based on intense emotions, including loyalty to him alone.

McCarthy built an intense, emotional following by dramatizing the threat of an "enemy within" and singling out relatively powerless individuals for public destruction.

McCarthy stirred up a following that was intensely loyal, driven by cathartic anger, grievance, fear, and an exclusive loyalty to him. His supporters, provoked by his rhetoric, inundated senators who supported his censure with hate mail, described as "highly charged, emotional and inflammable personal following." This suggests that McCarthy's followers were not just emotionally invested but also envisioned extreme actions like secret roundups and imprisonment of those opposed by McCarthy.

Rachel Maddow points out that McCarthy's blend of ultra-right and extremist viewpoints with mainstream electoral power illustrated his controversial tactics. By aligning himself with both radical and more traditionally conservative figures, McCarthy managed to build a base that supported his approach.

McCarthy's tactics involved making false, baseless accusations against prominent figures and institutions, often with ties to the communist threat, that resulted in the ruin of many careers and lives.

McCarthy's methods included making false and baseless accusations, particularly targeting dozens of largely Jewish scientists and engineers at the Fort Monmouth Army Base in New Jersey. He labeled them secret communist spies—an accusation that led to the destruction of many careers and lives.

McCarthy's actions and tactics eventually caught up to him, leading to the televised Army-McCarthy hearings that exposed his approach as factually incoherent and damaging.

The televised Army-McCarthy hearings were a turning ...

As Senator Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin faced censure proceedings in the United States Senate, his staunch supporters remained passionately dedicated, mobilizing a massive grassroots campaign to oppose the censure.

Despite the public fallout from the hearings, McCarthy's supporters remained intensely loyal and mobilized a massive grassroots campaign to oppose his censure in the Senate.

McCarthy's supporters organized large, emotional rallies across the country, filling venues like Constitution Hall and Madison Square Garden, to demonstrate their unwavering backing for the senator.

McCarthy supporters showed up in droves, packing venues from Constitution Hall to Madison Square Garden, to express their staunch backing for the senator through large, emotionally charged demonstrations. At a rally in Constitution Hall, fervent supporters held up signs praising McCarthy, with one suggesting he deserved a Congressional Medal of Honor. The crowd was so vast that a loudspeaker had to be set up for the overflow. McCarthy's ardent and radical support became evident to Senate colleagues as they were inundated with volumes of hate mail against the censure.

The pro-McCarthy movement incorporated elements of the far-right, including neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic groups, who saw his potential ouster as a threat to their broader political agenda.

The campaign to save McCarthy wasn't limited to mainstream supporters; it extended to the far-right fringes, including neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic factions. The involvement of groups like the National Renaissance Party, an avowed neo-Nazi group, indicated the depth and diversity of McCarthy's support base. The controversial right-wing retired Navy admiral even led a group that gathered petitions nationwide, while radical groups discussed ambitious goals like making McCarthy the next President of the United States.

Facing censure, McCarthy and his allies employed various tactics to delay the proceedings ...

Observations and actions surrounding Senator Joseph McCarthy during his censure suggest that he and his supporters may have been framing him as a martyr persecuted by a corrupt political system, a positioning that could bolster his and his movement's power.

McCarthy's reaction to the censure as opportunistic martyrdom

Senator Joseph McCarthy's response to censure proceedings evoked the image of a man being unjustly persecuted. At Constitution Hall, McCarthy was seen overcome with emotion, weeping during his speech, which raised the possibility that he was embracing the role of a victim or martyr. His speech included reflections on feeling deeply sickened by the "double-crossing and the double-dealing" of the censure efforts. To the public, he portrayed himself as a "crucified enemy of traitors within our gates." McCarthy reportedly saw the censure not as a detriment but as an opportunity to become a martyr, confiding in friends that he wished to be censured rather than apologize.

Pro-McCarthy movement's strategy and ambition

The movement interpreted the censure to rally support and aim for the presidency

McCarthy's supporters expressed their willingness to elevate him to the presidency, seeing the censure as a way to rally their base and cast the existing system as corrupt and in need of overthrow. The condemnation was regarded not only as ineffectual against McCarthy but also as proof of the malignity of his enemies and as a sign that the American political system was perhaps broken. After the Senate vote, conservatives strategized to capitalize on McCarthy's popularity for a potential presidential campaign.

Unconventional methods to seize pow ...