If you want to read book more frightening than a Stephen King novel, I recommend Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator McCarthy by Larry Tye, 2020, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Most of us would not have watched the live telecast of the congressional anti-communism hearings chaired by the Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy in the early fifties. This was period in American politics known as the Red Scare. The Cold War was at its height and there was paranoia over the fear of the spread of communism.
In his attempt to uncover communists in the United States, Senator McCarthy engaged in recklessly charging innocent people, ignoring their civil liberties, and destroying lives. Several people committed suicide as a result of his bullying tactics. The term “McCarthyism” is a lasting reminder of his abuse of power. His behaviour has led the author, Tye, to brand him as a demagogue, a political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather than by using rational argument.
{"id":76,"date":"2022-11-27T17:47:08","date_gmt":"2022-11-27T17:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"\/wp\/?p=76"},"modified":"2022-11-27T17:48:17","modified_gmt":"2022-11-27T17:48:17","slug":"problem-with-demagogues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/wp\/problem-with-demagogues\/","title":{"rendered":"The Problem with Demagogues"},"content":{"rendered":"\nIf you want to read book more frightening than a Stephen King novel, I recommend Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator McCarthy<\/u><\/strong> by Larry Tye, 2020, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of us would not have watched the live telecast of the congressional anti-communism hearings chaired by the Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy in the early fifties. This was period in American politics known as the Red Scare. The Cold War was at its height and there was paranoia over the fear of the spread of communism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his attempt to uncover communists in the United States, Senator McCarthy engaged in recklessly charging innocent people, ignoring their civil liberties, and destroying lives. Several people committed suicide as a result of his bullying tactics. The term \u201cMcCarthyism\u201d is a lasting reminder of his abuse of power. His behaviour has led the author, Tye, to brand him as a demagogue<\/strong>, a political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather than by using rational argument.