Have You No Sense of Decency? Theme of Patriotism

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." That's Samuel Johnson writing in 1775 about false patriotism, but he could have been talking about 1954, when McCarthy's brand of flag-waving, take-no-prisoners patriotism was about to be exposed as a sham. If anything, the Army-McCarthy hearings taught Americans that they didn't have to paint their faces red, white, and blue or demonstrate blind faith in their leaders to be real patriots.

In some ways, the battle between McCarthy and Welch is all about the true meaning of patriotism. Any failure to condemn Communism was by definition not patriotic. Whether or not that's factually true doesn't really matter; the point is that the public believed it. During the McCarthy era, any indirect association with anything even vaguely related to Communism was just as bad as being Marx or Lenin. You can imagine what McCarthy thought of Fisher's Lawyers Guild, which valued human rights over property rights—Marxist to the max.

Patriotism is a good thing. But throughout American history, appeals to patriotism have been used to justify questionable government actions from slavery to Jim Crow laws to torture to electronic surveillance of private citizens. Don't like these policies? Think the ACLU has a point? Well, then, you're unpatriotic. It's a troubling issue; Americans are supposed to be able to criticize their government without being accused of being unpatriotic. It's what makes our democracy strong and our country special.

And if you want to paint your face red, white, and blue, go ahead.

Just be sure to moisturize afterwards.

1. Why does McCarthy immediately begin to discredit Secretary Stevens' patriotism? Do you buy it?
2. At what point in the proceedings does McCarthy question Fisher's patriotism?
3. Does McCarthy ever question Welch's patriotism?

McCarthy, in relentlessly searching out people who wanted to overthrow the government, was being patriotic, even if he was something of a jerk. 

By trampling First Amendment rights, McCarthy was the opposite of patriotic.