Mitch McConnell gives the late Sen. Joe McCarthy a run for his money in the demagoguery department.
Kentucky’s senior senator has been a slime super-spreader since he unseated Democrat Dee Huddleston in 1984. Now he’s lying about retired Marine jet pilot Amy McGrath, his current Democratic opponent.
“McCarthyism”
First a history lesson: McCarthy, a right-wing Wisconsin Republican, pandered to widespread public fear of communism at the onset of the Cold War after World War II and orchestrated a second Red Scare. (The first one was after World War I.)
McCarthy helped whip up national hysteria by falsely accusing hundreds of loyal Americans of being communists or communist sympathizers. His lies wrecked the careers and the lives of innocent citizens across the nation. Finally, many of his fellow Republicans disavowed him, and the Senate censured him on a bipartisan vote.
McCarthy died disgraced.
But “McCarthyism” survives as a synonym for smearing a political opponent with half-truths, flat-out lies and outrageous charges that are baseless. Since McCarthy’s been dead for decades, it might be time to retire “McCarthyism” for “McConnellism.”
Reasons why are plentiful.
“McConnellism”
Check out Team Mitch.com, the Republican senator’s campaign website. It says, “The fact that Amy McGrath ‘literally’ wants to transform America into a far-left socialist country shouldn’t be surprising since she called herself ‘more progressive’ than anybody in Kentucky.”
The charge stems from remarks McGrath made at a 2018 Massachusetts fundraiser for her congressional race against Rep. Andy Barr, R-Lexington. “I am further left, I am more progressive, than anyone in the state of Kentucky,” McGrath said in a recording the Barr campaign got and obviously gave to McConnell.
McGrath insists the audio was altered to change what she meant. “Meanwhile, the McConnell camp hasn’t — and wouldn’t when we asked — release the full audio from the event, leaving the dispute at an impasse for fact-checking,” said FactCheck.org.
Who’s kidding who? It wouldn’t take much to turn the left flank of most Kentuckians. The Bluegrass State is Trump territory and one of the most crimsoned of Republican Red States.
But Team Mitch has typically twisted the truth by making a quantum — and phony — leap from “left” and “progressive” to “far-left socialist.”
McConnellism: Placing party over country, even if it means jeopardizing the integrity of American elections — while lining the pockets of the wealthy and corporations and enabling a lawless president. https://t.co/MnWAa52ZQ2
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) July 29, 2019
Meanwhile, eager to please the boss, folks at the Republican Party of Kentucky are out with a mailer claiming that “When left-wing rioters started attacking our police and burning our flag, Amy McGrath wasn’t with us.” The mailer adds that McGrath, the first woman Marine to fly in a jet in combat, “Defended Violent Mobs,” “Attacked Law Enforcement for Protecting Courthouses” and “Criticized President Trump’s Defense of Federal Buildings, calling it ‘Un-American.’”
That’s torturing the truth, too. The accusation is based on a July 23 McGrath tweet and on remarks she made in a July 24 interview with WPSD-TV in Paducah.
In her tweet, McGrath responded to an Associated Press story that said, “The mayor of Portland, Oregon, was tear-gassed by U.S. government agents as he stood outside a federal courthouse…”
McGrath, like thousands of other Americans, denounced the gassing. But she challenged the Senate majority leader, not the president. “This has got to stop. There is no reason for federal agents to be acting this way, @senatemajldr,” she tweeted. “Why are you silent? This is un-American.”
“What’s happening in Portland is peaceful protesting, and unfortunately we have federal agents sent in that, from what I can tell, you know, are tear gassing peaceful protesters,” WPSD quoted the candidate. “Protests should always be peaceful and if there is any [violence], I certainly do not condone any kind of destruction of property or anything like that. [italics mine.]”
McGrath’s a moderate in word and deed, and Team Mitch and the RPK know it. But they never let the truth stand in the way of slandering Democrats. So just as McCarthyism was finally thrown on the ash heap of history, there’s plenty of room for McConnellism in history’s landfill.
McGrath's a moderate in word and deed, and Team Mitch and the RPK know it. But they never let the truth stand in the way of slandering Democrats.Click To Tweet–30–
McCarthy photo: DonkeyHotey via Wikimedia Commons
McConnell photo: United States Senate via Wikimedia Commons
October 11, 2020 at 01:31AM
https://forwardky.com/forget-mccarthyism-now-theres-mcconnellism/
Forget McCarthyism — now there's McConnellism - Forward Kentucky
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