The Ghost of Joe McCarthy Slithers Again

Echoing the unsubstantiated claims by Joe McCarthy during the 1950s that communists had infiltrated the top ranks of the American government, Republican Rep. Allen West stated earlier this week that he believes that more than 75 members of the House Democrats are members of the Communist Party.

We’ve talked at times about George Orwell’s classic novel 1984, and the amnesia that sets in when we flush events down the memory hole, leaving us at the mercy of only what we know today. Sometimes, though, the past comes back to haunt, like a ghost. It happened recently when we saw Congressman Allen West of Florida on the news.

A Republican and Tea Party favorite, he was asked at a local gathering how many of his fellow members of Congress are “card-carrying Marxists or International Socialists.”
He replied, “I believe there’s about 78 to 81 members of the Democrat Party who are members of the Communist Party. It’s called the Congressional Progressive Caucus.”

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