- Joined
- Jun 23, 2009
- Messages
- 133,631
- Reaction score
- 30,937
- Location
- Bagdad, La.
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Very Conservative
I thought Gingrich was a historian. HUAC wasn't created to sniff out Nazis, it was created to sniff out communists.
Actually...I don't think it was created to find Nazis.
The HUAC was created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having Communist ties.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Un-American_Activities_Committee
It was originally created to find Nazis and Nazi sympathizers. Then it became communists. Then socialists. Then LGBT individuals. Then pretty much anyone McCarthy didn't like.
Retire Newt...and take Trump with you.
Amazing.
Many months ago, I loathed the idea of yet another Bush running the Reps. Now I would take his establishment boredom over Trump's buffoonery in a second.
America is in a sad state.
That's a double edge sword.
Today it is ISIS/ISIL.
Tomorrow? Some American based "patriotic" organization.
The day after? Anyone who opposes the Party line?
NO, we cannot allow a new McCarthyist witch-hunt. Guilt by innuendo.
All I am saying is that individual rights not be violated absent due process of law.
OP said:(CNN)Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is calling for the creation of a new House Committee on Un-American Activities, invoking the infamous "Red Scare"-era congressional body as a blueprint for weeding out American ISIS adherents and sympathizers.
"We originally created the House Un-American Activities Committee to go after Nazis," he said during an appearance on "Fox and Friends" this week. "We passed several laws in 1938 and 1939 to go after Nazis and we made it illegal to help the Nazis. We're going to presently have to go take the similar steps here."
That's a double edge sword.
Today it is ISIS/ISIL.
Tomorrow? Some American based "patriotic" organization.
The day after? Anyone who opposes the Party line?
NO, we cannot allow a new McCarthyist witch-hunt. Guilt by innuendo.
All I am saying is that individual rights not be violated absent due process of law.
Oh, yes, that infamous slippery slope. One must be careful that the scale of liberty doesn't get tilted too far towards levels of injustice. Otherwise, wrongful persecution could run rapid.
The answer is yes. Abolish political parties.Learning from history is not a GOP strong suit. Some days, I can't tell which party needs to be destroyed more.
All of America has moved to Iowa?Retire Newt...and take Trump with you.
Amazing.
Many months ago, I loathed the idea of yet another Bush running the Reps. Now I would take his establishment boredom over Trump's buffoonery in a second.
America is in a sad state.
Kinda like the terror watch list?
Not exactly...
No one is persecuted whose name appears on the DHS/FBI/CIA terror watch list. Even those who are on the list are still free to move about the country and otherwise go about their daily lives.
Now, I would agree that some people do need to be closely monitored - those who have close ties to terrorist but haven't committed a crime otherwise, those who are suspected of being involved with terrorist activity, those who have traveled abroad to areas that could be classified as terrorist safe-havens, etc., etc. - and certain freedoms restricted (i.e., gun ownership, the ability to travel abroad) until cleared. You just have to be smart about it. I don't think any reasonable person would have a problem with this.
The answer is yes. Abolish political parties.
All of America has moved to Iowa?
On a serious note I never thought we could be looking at a dimer future than Bush and then Obama. If this keeps up, the 2020 ticket will be Hitler or Manson.
1. McCarthy had nothing to do with the HUAC.
n 1953, McCarthy was made chairman of the Senate Committee on Government Operations. [T]he Committee on Government Operations included the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and the mandate of this subcommittee was sufficiently flexible to allow McCarthy to use it for his own investigations of Communists in the government. The term "McCarthyism", coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy's practices, was soon applied to similar anti-communist activities. Today, the term is used more generally in reference to demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Un-American_Activities_CommitteeIn the wake of the downfall of McCarthy (who never served in the House, nor HUAC), the prestige of HUAC began a gradual decline beginning in the late 1950s. By 1959, the committee was being denounced by former President Harry S. Truman as the "most un-American thing in the country today."
3. All I said was that we need to track down ISIS supporters/sympathizers/members. I never said that The Constitution be thrown out the window to do it.
Sorry, I don't recall saying Joe McCarthy was a member of the House Un-American Affairs Committee.
I believe I said was "we cannot allow a new McCarthyist witch-hunt."
This because:
We already have the terrorist watch list and the No-Fly list, both of which merely require any slightest link to a know terrorist or terrorist group to be placed on.
The old HUAC was as bad as McCarthy and led to things like the Hollywood Blacklist. Meanwhile:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Un-American_Activities_Committee
Read through that wiki article.
Supporters and sympathizers? Exactly what does that mean?
If you are old enough to recall back in the 60's there were many Americans labeled "supporters and sympathizers" of communism for opposition to the Vietnam War. In the South, Freedom Riders were often called commies. Blacklists are formed simply because people don't agree with the Party line and are judged Un-American.
This simply for expressing opposition to policies or support for opposition thought...ALL guaranteed under the First Amendment.
Sooo.....NO! I don't agree with such tactics. If one is an ACTIVE terrorist, then the full weight of law and justice should be applied. Otherwise, Freedom trumps fear!
There is no good about this.
Well, you all keep saying the HUAC did whatever McCarthy wanted. What else am I to gain from that continual association of McCarthy with the HUAC?
The term "McCarthyism", coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy's practices, was soon applied to similar anti-communist activities. Today, the term is used more generally in reference to demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents.
No, not really. Give me Liberty or give me Death.
Done correctly, such a plan should bring due process into the picture.
Instead of finding a problem and throwing out the whole thing, lets figure out what's good about this, and then use that, coupled with clear definitions, limits and procedures to ensure that it doesn't get abused.
When discussing a new HUAC we are dealing with POLITICIANS here.
They seldom do things "correctly" because they are typically more interested in achieving notoriety in order to gain influence and get re-elected.
Now I don't pretend to know what the solution really is, although like anyone else I have some suggestions.
What I do know is that variations of Same S**t, Different Day is no answer.
Your use of the term "McCarthyist witch-hunt" betrays that what you think you know about Sen. Joe McCarthy's activities in the early 1950's is far from the truth. Millions of pages of documents, including decrypts of intercepted diplomatic cables and detailed FBI files, have come to light decades after McCarthy's time in the Senate. They show that if anything, the penetration of federal government agencies, largely directed by Moscow, was an even more serious threat to our national security than McCarthy and others who were concerned about the problem suspected. The man who probably appreciated better than anyone else the vast scale of this conspiracy to subvert our government was FBI Director Hoover, but his repeated warnings to both President Truman and senior officials in the Executive Branch largely fell on deaf ears.
I think Speaker Gingrich has a good idea, and I hope a committee to investigate Muslim jihadists will be formed. Congress has power to make private persons appear before it and answer its questions, if it has reason to believe those persons are conspiring with hostile foreign organizations to harm this country's government or its citizens, or are otherwise involved in subversive activities. But Gingrich's claim that the House Committee on Un-American Activities was formed to investigate Nazis is not accurate. From its beginnings as a special unit in 1938, the committee's main concern was not Nazi subversion, but Communist subversion. Rep. Martin Dies of Texas, the committee's first chariman and for a long time its leading light, was investigating much the same problem that was to concern Sen. McCarthy and others in Congress a decade later.
Oh, yes, that infamous slippery slope. One must be careful that the scale of liberty doesn't get tilted too far towards levels of injustice. Otherwise, wrongful persecution could run rapid.
If it prevented another mass killing, would that be good???
No, not really. Give me Liberty or give me Death.
Is preventing a mass killing good? Yes. Do I trust our imbecile representatives enough to place the fate of our national security in the hands of a congressional committee? No.
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?