Question

How did the McCarthy investigations into communist subversion impact the nation as a whole when it came to essential rights of the individual. Who opposed him?

Answer 1

SOLUTION

MCCARTHY INVESTIGATION-IMPACT TO THE NATION AS THE WHOLE

In the McCarthy era of the 1950s, anti-communism created an atmosphere of fear which allowed political actors to accure greater powers over the American population. The legal status and rights of the individual were profoundly changed as the norms of fair trails were subverted, constitutional rights ceased to apply and new laws restricted personal freedoms. This dissertation argues that this unusual situation were permitted as the public were manipulated by people with political interests into believing the USA had entered into a state of emergency inorder to safeguard national security.This is informed by theories of 'the state of exception'which have become influential in analysing power in liberal democracies. It focuses largely on the post 9/11 era, seeking to establish how the discourse of the 'war on terror' allows governments to institute expectational measures giving them greater control over the citizens as the whole. This power, it is argued, it is the hidden mechanism of current politics. This dissertation applies theories of expectation to the Mc Carthy era.

OPPOSING MCCARTHY'S INVESTIGATION

After the mid-1950s, Mc Carthyism began to decline, mainly due to the gradual loss of public popularity and opposition from the U.S supreme court led by the cheif justice Earl Warren. Mc Carthy was dangerous - ''no bolder seditionist ever moved among us'', Richard H. Rovere wrote in his classic Senator Joe McCarthy- but much of the country was with him because he embodied, however boorishly, the forces of change.