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sky of mind

Wednesday, 5 October 2005, 11:21 pm

Consider this my evidence that politics as we see it today, is OLD politics!
There is very little that is new in American politics today!
Politics has always been a dirty, corrupt and dispicable way to earn a living

Who Was HUAC?

George Reedy covered the House On Un-American Activities
for UPI and once called the members of HUAC, "The worst
collection of people that have ever been assembled in the
entire history of American politics."

The House On Un-American Activities began in 1938. Its
chief function was to investigate subversive activities
in the United States, starting with pro-German groups like
the German-Bund. Its secondary function was to look at
other groups who could be categorized as anti-American.
This included the communist party and the socialist-workers
party.

Martin Dies was its first chairmen, and his narrow-minded
views would shape the agenda for the committee for the next
twenty years. Dies was a racist, anti-New Deal, pro-German,
Democratic congressmen from Texas. As chairmen of HUAC, he
turned the committee into an anti-Roosevelt investigative
agency. He attacked New Deal programs such as: the Federal
Theatre project, which employed artists and brought theatre
to sections of the United States that had never seen a live
play, the Federal Writers project which, among other things,
recorded the oral history of former slaves, and other
Roosevelt programs.

Dies attacks on the Roosevelt administration set the tone
for HUAC. Parnell Thomas, who later spent time in prison
for corruption, followed him. Thomas was a crude man who
allegedly joined the Ku Klux Klan in 1922. Thomas was a
bitterly partisan, vulgar leader who brought to the
committee his own narrow prejudices. Other Republican
members included John McDowell, a former newspaper owner
with a deep hatred of the New Deal, and Richard Nixon.

Nixon was a first term congressmen from California who
defeated incumbent Jerry Voorhis in a very bitter election.
Nixon, as newly released Watergate tapes clearly reveal,
was a mean-spirited, bigoted anti-Semite, who had waged
a vicious and disgusting campaign in 1946. His campaign
produced a widely distributed newsletter which said that
"the Jews" were supporting Voorhis and that he was a
spokesperson for an international Jewish conspiracy, "the
subversive Jews and communists...in the interests of
international Jews, [aimed] to destroy Christian America."

Nixon attacked Voorhis for pushing what he called pro-
Russian issues. These included the G.I. Bill, school lunch
programs, abolition of the poll tax, opposition to higher
oil prices and two veteran housing bills.

On the democratic side stood John Rankin of Mississippi.
Rankin was a deeply prejudiced man who opposed anti-
lynching laws and the GI Bill (because it would include
African-Americans). During the hearings, he would search
through a scurrilous book called, Who's Who in American
Jewry, to see if any of the witnesses were Jewish. Sitting
next to Rankin was John Wood of Georgia. Wood was an active
member of the Ku Klux Klan who saw proponents of justice
for blacks as subversive.

So what did these members of HUAC find? Basically nothing.
The idea that the communists were about to take over the
United States was ludicrous. There was never any threat to
take over the government of the United States. By 1956,
over half of the members who belonged to the depleted
communist party were FBI informants. It was easy to be
catorgorized as a fellow traveler. If you signed a petition
calling for anti-lynching laws, you were branded a
subversive.

Of the nearly 2.5 million federal employees investigated
only 270 of them were fired and out of that 270, none were
proven to be communists. The hysteria created by the
committee retarded the growth of the civil rights movement
and paved the way for the debacle in Vietnam. So the next
time someone steps up to denounce someone else as being
un-American, it might be a good idea to investigate the
person doing the accusation. You know what they say,
"people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones."

POAC

Thursday, 6 October 2005, 5:43 am

Bravo. Great post

sky of mind

Thursday, 6 October 2005, 9:21 pm