Dying for Joe McCarthy's Sins-The Suicide of Wyoming Senator Lester Hunt
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It’s always a threat in any democracy that some political or religious leader or media personality will play on the fears of the people in order to create targeted hate.
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Americans need to know this story, not only for the sake of Lester Hunt and his family, but for the realization it carries that the current lack of civility in the public arena is dangerous and that it has longer roots than we might think. Joe
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Today those who use such tactics benefit from having a 24-hour a day, seven-days-a-week news cycle complete with entire radio and television networks dedicated to stretching and denying the truth in order to accomplish questionable ends.
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According to Truman biographer McCullough, Biffle “went around during the campaign disguised as a chicken peddler” taking his own poll. Based on his decidedly unscientific poll, Biffle knew Harry would win because, as he said, “The common people are for ya.” It was the only poll showing Truman would win.
Kimba Tichenor
Like 2016, the pollsters were not talking to the right people.
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The nation’s blood pressure was high, people were afraid. Most everyone was afraid of something. Whites were afraid of blacks. People were being taught to fear homosexuals and homosexuals were being given reasons to fear law enforcement and other government officials. A growing number of Americans were anxious about organized crime.
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Characterized by an appeal to prejudice and ignorance rather than logic and reason, demagoguery flourishes during times when people have rational cause to be concerned about events beyond their control. By manipulating their fears, demagogues give frightened people an invitation to think irrationally about difficult issues.
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Neither President Eisenhower at the height of his own popularity nor Lyndon Johnson as his congressional power was ascending was willing to stake any of their chips on a fight with Joe McCarthy.
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The politics of fear allowed those who could have spoken to remain quiet even as careers were destroyed and through countless suicides among those wrongfully accused of being Communists.
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Most Americans are familiar with the Red Scare. Not near so many are aware of the “Lavender Scare” though its witch-hunts more severely impacted a far greater number of Americans.
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McCarthy had been unable to identify those he claimed to have on the list of Communists he held high in the air that February 1950 night in Wheeling, West Virginia. Now he and his supporters had an admission. The federal government employed homosexuals and McCarthy and others focused on them.
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The Communist issue was conflated with the homosexual issue under a common heading of “security risks.” It was assumed, without any proof, the loyalty of homosexuals could be easily compromised.
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Lafayette Park has always been a delightful venue for socializing and from the early years of the Republic, Washington D.C. provided a vibrant social environment for gays and lesbians “despite periodic crackdowns by the police and government.” In the 1890s, Lafayette Park was the destination point of an annual “drag dance” where hundreds of gay African-American men dressed in female attire filled the park after a “dance” through the city. For many years and certainly during the first half of the twentieth century, it was a well-established gathering place for Washington’s gay community.
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There were too many rumors about McCarthy’s own sexual attractions for him to take the lead in this battle.
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It was not only self-identified gays and lesbians who were targeted. Targets also included single people who were viewed suspiciously for either living alone or non-intimately with persons of the same sex.
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It was during this period that Welker asked an acquaintance to tell the Senator that “if Hunt would retire from the Senate at the end of this term and not run for reelection next year, the charges against his son would not be prosecuted.”
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In 1990, a one-time administrative assistant to Arizona Senator Carl Hayden admitted during an oral history interview with the Senate Historical Office that the blackmail was common knowledge.
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It was clear to Senator Hunt that although his refusal to resign had resulted in his son being convicted, that was not enough for those who were pursuing him relentlessly. His personal ordeal was far from over. By now Hunt had become so depressed he began taking lunch alone at his desk rather than joining colleagues in the Senate dining room.
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If Hunt agreed to resign and permit Republican Governor C.J. Rodgers to appoint a successor, the President would appoint him to a six-year term on the Tariff Commission.