I am violating one of my personal rules in that I am writing and publishing my opinion in a blog post while angry….very angry. Part of the reason I am so incensed is because Congressman Allen West represents me in the House of Representatives; well, my Congressional District, anyway. If there were a man who does not represent me, my views and how I feel, no better example could be produced than Allen West.
Congressman Allen West (D-FL22) made a statement yesterday that he “heard” there were dozens of [as many as 80] Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives who are members of the Communist Party. He made this statement during a town hall meeting at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, FL.
I do not have polite words to describe this kind of tripe. This crap is B.S. and if Congressman West truly believes this to be the case, he needs to take a long rest at the mental institution of his choice, or the choice of the Judge that commits him. If he does not believe this, then he is a red-baiting S.O.B. that is an abomination, the likes of which has not been seen since the days of Joseph McCarthy for whom the term McCarthyism is coined.
I believe that, as a Congressman, Allen West has become a threat to others; mainly, We the People of the United States, for his reckless disregard for the truth. I am fearful that we are about to see the rise of another era of McCarthyism, and it scares the Hell out of me. West needs to be stopped, quickly and hard, for making such bogus statements.
McCarthyism is the practice of making reckless, unsubstantiated accusations, as well as demagogic attacks on the character or patriotism of political adversaries. I can think of no better term to fit what West is doing. What appalls me even more is the cowardly way he practices McCarthyism. He uses weasel words. His response will be, no doubt, “I didn’t say there were dozens of Communists among the Democratic members of Congress. I only said I heard that there were dozens of Democratic members of Congress who were Communists.” The saddest thing is that there are people who actually believe him!!
Like Joe McCarthy, Congressman West does not name the Communists because, again, he only heard they existed. How could he possibly know who they are? This is the classic technique used by McCarthy in the “Second Red Scare” of the 1940’s and 50’s. He gave numbers that dwindled and dwindled and dwindled, never naming names. He held hearings (The House Committee on Un-American Activities) that ruined countless lives, resulted in the Hollywood “Blacklist” and is a scar on the body politic of this country.
Congressman West now engages in activity reminiscent of Joseph McCarthy, a man so vile that one of the most derisive terms in politics is based on his name. What’s next; he holds out a list of the names of the 80 members of the House of Representatives who he purports to be Communists, but refuses to identify them or show the list? West is already referring to any proposal or program with which he disagrees or takes exception as “Socialism”, much akin to the accusations of “Communist” or “Red Plots” of McCarthyism. Will we once again hear the terms “fellow traveler”, “pinko”, “Fifth Columnist”?
In previous posts, I have compared the tactics of the neo-conservative, fascists of the ultra-Right to that of Hitler and the Nazi's. Allow me to reiterate it is a comparison of tactics, not character, nor beliefs. Hitler used "The Big Lie." The expression was coined by Adolf Hitler, when he dictated his 1925 book Mein Kampf, about the use of a lie so "colossal" that no one would believe that someone "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously." This is, in my mind, clearly an example of that tactic in action.
Congressman West was apparently once a good American. He was a member of our armed forces and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. He did so only after he was prosecuted by Court Martial for engaging in interrogation techniques that violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice while he served in Kuwait. I would opine that somewhere along the way to this incident, and his declaration that there are dozens of Communists among the Democratic members of the House of Representatives, West “lost it” and he lacks the judgment necessary to hold public office. That, or he is a complete moron for making such reckless, defamatory comments.
The allegation, as heinous as it is, must be challenged, immediately, and not allowed to fester like the Cancer that became McCarthyism. I believe this demands a Congressional Censure.
In an abundance of caution, in the incredibly unlikely event that he could conceivably be right, he must be called upon to immediately identify the source who told him this, where he heard it, or what proof he has that makes him believe there are dozens of Communists in Congress. If he does, in fact, know who these Communists are, he must reveal them, and, quite frankly, God help him if he can’t prove it. His political career may be lapsing into critical condition, but if he publicly identifies someone as a Communist, and he is wrong, he can probably count on being a pariah for the rest of his life.
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