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DavidAstinWalsh's profile
David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh
David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh
David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh
@DavidAstinWalsh

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David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh

@DavidAstinWalsh

Postdoc @UVA. I study far-right politics, political culture, conservatism, labor, and political economy. Book: TAKING AMERICA BACK // Yale Press // Date TBD

Charlottesville, VA
gened.as.virginia.edu/people/profile…
Joined August 2011

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    David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh‏ @DavidAstinWalsh 4 Sep 2018

    David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh Retweeted Malcolm Gladwell

    This was not how Joe McCarthy was “done in” and demonstrates a profound misunderstanding of McCarthy’s place in American political history. (THREAD)https://twitter.com/Gladwell/status/1036951312204746752 …

    David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh added,

    Malcolm GladwellVerified account @Gladwell
    Joe McCarthy was done in when he was confronted by someone with intelligence and guts, before a live audience. Sometimes a platform is actually a gallows.
    8:12 AM - 4 Sep 2018 from Arlington, VA
    • 1,119 Retweets
    • 3,409 Likes
    • Colm Ryan 🇪🇺🇮🇪 contact gracer sailing the seas of cheese Jeff Mascarenhas Tahar #HandsOffCuba You Cowards ☆☭ 🇨🇳 karina næss professional dumbass blastnost
    47 replies 1,119 retweets 3,409 likes
      1. New conversation
      2. David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh‏ @DavidAstinWalsh 4 Sep 2018

        First of all, McCarthy was not simply some “fringe” figure that came and went out of the blue. McCarthy was a conservative Wisconsin Republican who rode the right-wing wave in the 1946 midterms to his Senate seat.

        1 reply 39 retweets 544 likes
        Show this thread
      3. David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh‏ @DavidAstinWalsh 4 Sep 2018

        The GOP won big that year campaigning on an anti-labor, anti-New Deal platform. It's the same election that gave us the Taft-Hartley Act, which McCarthy naturally supported.

        2 replies 27 retweets 400 likes
        Show this thread
      4. David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh‏ @DavidAstinWalsh 4 Sep 2018

        McCarthy *was* something of a backbencher before seizing the anti-communist issue, true, although he did generate some national headlines when he defended the Nazi criminals behind the Malmedy massacre in 1949.pic.twitter.com/mQMPoZfhjr

        2 replies 46 retweets 350 likes
        Show this thread
      5. David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh‏ @DavidAstinWalsh 4 Sep 2018

        I'm not going to recapitulate the entirety of McCarthy's career, because you probably already know it. He seized on the communist issue to beat the Truman administration over the head with, and before long was one of the widely recognized anti-communist leaders in Congress.

        1 reply 21 retweets 322 likes
        Show this thread
      6. David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh‏ @DavidAstinWalsh 4 Sep 2018

        I want to emphasize, though, that McCarthy was NOT the only anti-communist Republican leader in Washington. Richard Nixon, Robert Taft, William Jenner were also very prominent. McCarthy was, admittedly, the most theatrical. But this was good for the cause! Headlines!

        1 reply 24 retweets 376 likes
        Show this thread
      7. David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh‏ @DavidAstinWalsh 4 Sep 2018

        McCarthy was feted by the American right and was in fact a key figure in uniting the far right (generally referred to at the time as "nationalists") with more "mainstream" conservatives.

        1 reply 25 retweets 357 likes
        Show this thread
      8. David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh‏ @DavidAstinWalsh 4 Sep 2018

        In early 1953, McCarthy spoke at a black-tie gala at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. The gathering was a fete to honor JB Matthews, a former communist-turned-investigator for HUAC.pic.twitter.com/d6fvsnP9l3

        1 reply 21 retweets 258 likes
        Show this thread
      9. David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh‏ @DavidAstinWalsh 4 Sep 2018

        The guest list was impressive. It included William F. Buckley, Brent Bozell, Roy Cohn, George Sokolsky and Ayn Rand. It also included the publisher of "The American Gentile" and Merwin K. Hart, a lobbyist for the Franco regime.pic.twitter.com/LaVCoCyy4j

        2 replies 26 retweets 311 likes
        Show this thread
      10. David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh‏ @DavidAstinWalsh 4 Sep 2018

        McCarthy's appearance at the gala was rumored to mean that he was going to hire Matthews as the chief investigator for his committee. These rumors turned out to be true, but Matthews didn't last long. Why?

        1 reply 14 retweets 242 likes
        Show this thread
      11. David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh‏ @DavidAstinWalsh 4 Sep 2018

        Because in July 1953 Matthews published this article in the right-wing "American Mercury" magazine (owned by "nationalist" and notorious anti-Semite Russell Maguire, a billionaire who made his fortune making Thompson submachine guns for the Army during the war...)pic.twitter.com/MjB6GJcsYd

        2 replies 18 retweets 243 likes
        Show this thread
      12. David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh‏ @DavidAstinWalsh 4 Sep 2018

        In it, Matthews accused mainline Protestant churches of being infiltrated by the Communist Party. His opening sentence was... provocative.pic.twitter.com/BOlx0XgMRr

        2 replies 26 retweets 293 likes
        Show this thread
      13. David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh‏ @DavidAstinWalsh 4 Sep 2018

        There was a massive outcry. Matthews had targeted one of the pillars of "Americanism": Protestant Christianity. About the only person who came to Matthews' defense was--surprise, surprise--the Reverend Carl McIntire.pic.twitter.com/7mEYgj5rWd

        1 reply 16 retweets 247 likes
        Show this thread
      14. David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh‏ @DavidAstinWalsh 4 Sep 2018

        McCarthy was forced to cut a deal with his Republican allies to fire Matthews, in exchange for retaining his independence on his committee hirings.

        1 reply 14 retweets 246 likes
        Show this thread
      15. David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh‏ @DavidAstinWalsh 4 Sep 2018

        Matthews, for his part, blamed the Democrats for smearing him, saying this was to pre-emptively discredit a future article in which he explored the connections between communism and the New Deal.pic.twitter.com/auuhRYgy61

        1 reply 13 retweets 236 likes
        Show this thread
      16. David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh‏ @DavidAstinWalsh 4 Sep 2018

        This was McCarthy's first major political defeat, and it happened because he targeted an "in-group," maybe the biggest "in-group" in American life in the 1950s.

        1 reply 20 retweets 345 likes
        Show this thread
      17. David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh‏ @DavidAstinWalsh 4 Sep 2018

        But it's important to remember that despite McCarthy's overreaches, his conservative allies generally stuck with him.

        1 reply 20 retweets 314 likes
        Show this thread
      18. David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh‏ @DavidAstinWalsh 4 Sep 2018

        Sure, sure, they might say that some of his tactics went too far, but that they were largely necessary in the face of liberal malfeasance and communist duplicity. That was the general tone of William F. Buckley and Brent Bozell's 1954 book defending McCarthy.

        2 replies 18 retweets 295 likes
        Show this thread
      19. David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh‏ @DavidAstinWalsh 4 Sep 2018

        Fulton Lewis, one of the most prominent right-wing radio broadcasters of the decade, continued to defend McCarthy after his death, too. He does it in this 1958 interview with Mike Wallace. https://www.c-span.org/video/?288936-1/mike-wallace-interview-fulton-lewis-jr …

        1 reply 11 retweets 237 likes
        Show this thread
      20. David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh‏ @DavidAstinWalsh 4 Sep 2018

        Buckley was pretty consistent in defending McCarthy throughout his life. Just a taste: a 1966 "Firing Line" debate with Leo Cherne.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiuvVk5LjYc …

        2 replies 18 retweets 262 likes
        Show this thread
      21. David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh‏ @DavidAstinWalsh 4 Sep 2018

        And let's not forget the John Birch Society, which catapulted to prominence in the late 1950s and early 1960s and was largely made up of McCarthyites.pic.twitter.com/3l74BFI40S

        1 reply 26 retweets 281 likes
        Show this thread
      22. David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh‏ @DavidAstinWalsh 4 Sep 2018

        So, to sum up: McCarthy was not some sui generis figure, he did not destroy himself on television but unraveled over a longer period of time because he attacked unimpeachably "American" institutions, and *still* enjoyed widespread support on the right despite his "excesses."

        5 replies 101 retweets 641 likes
        Show this thread
      23. David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh‏ @DavidAstinWalsh 4 Sep 2018

        This history is, I'm sure, totally irrelevant for our current political moment. /end

        3 replies 20 retweets 511 likes
        Show this thread
      24. David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh‏ @DavidAstinWalsh 4 Sep 2018

        Shameless plug for my latest in the current issue of the @washmonthly, where I explore this issue in more detail.https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/july-august-2018/how-the-right-wing-convinces-itself-that-liberals-are-evil/ …

        12 replies 106 retweets 481 likes
        Show this thread
      25. David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh‏ @DavidAstinWalsh 5 Sep 2018

        David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh Retweeted David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh

        Addendum.https://twitter.com/DavidAstinWalsh/status/1037357689037369344 …

        David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh added,

        David “HINDSIGHT IS 2021” Walsh @DavidAstinWalsh
        Some McCarthy defenders are sliding into my mentions, so let me briefly address these two pretty standard McCarthyite talking points. https://twitter.com/Ethnocryptology/status/1037308962453028866 …
        Show this thread
        2 replies 5 retweets 26 likes
        Show this thread
      26. End of conversation

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