In October 1947, 10 prominent screenwriters and directors with ties to the American Communist Party (ACP) were called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC). Rather than submit to questioning and possibly ruin their careers, the Hollywood Ten refused to answer the HUAC’s questions, citing their 1st Amendment right to freedom of speech and assembly. Some publicly read statements challenging the investigation’s constitutionality.
The Hollywood Ten were jailed for contempt of Congress and later blacklisted by the major Hollywood studios, which prevented them from working in any capacity with the major movie houses in the United States. Throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, many other film industry professionals were blacklisted for alleged communist ties. The blacklist lasted until the 1960s.
Supporters of the blacklist said that those with affiliations to the ACP posed a threat to American democracy, and had a higher chance of being Soviet sympathizers and therefore spies, informants, and producers of propaganda. It was one of many symptoms of the second red scare and affected over 500 industry professionals.
The Hollywood Ten were some of the earliest opponents of McCarthyism and the second red scare. Today, many venerate the Hollywood Ten, while others insist that their films really did have Soviet propaganda. While each of the ten men that were jailed had ties to the American Communist Party at some point in their lives, evidence of propaganda in their films is hard to find, so it is hard to determine what threat they posed to American democracy.
As hard as it might be to believe that a 1957 challenge of Congress still affects the United States today, vestiges of McCarthyism are evident in modern American political rhetoric. Communism does not loom as large in the American consciousness as it did during the cold war, but fear of communism persists. Many Americans mistrust the political system and have trouble differentiating it from socialism.
As this confusion is so wide spread, when examining the affect of the red scare on contemporary American politics, both communism and socialism will be considered targets of McCarthyism. Communism and socialism are certainly not the same thing, and one can support socialism without supporting communism, but as the comic below shows, many Americans fail to see the difference.
Courtesy: Examiner
President Obama is often labeled as a communist or a socialist by his opponents, especially in reference to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). While socialized medicine does exist, Obamacare has little in common with countries like Canada, Australia, Japan, or New Zealand. According to Merriam-Webster, socialized medicine is a system in which “medical and hospital services that are provided by a government and paid for by taxes.”
Obamacare regulates free market insurance companies and provides a platform for the uninsured to access affordable healthcare. The law has many weaknesses and opponents, but it in no way provides all medical and hospital services for the American people.
Courtesy: Bill O’Riley
Why do so many journalists lead the American public down this path of grave misunderstanding? It doesn’t take much research (or a degree in political science) to discover that those who label Obamacare as socialized medicine fail to understand the basic qualities of socialized medicine.
It isn’t that they shouldn’t question the legislation. It is important legislation that affects millions, and the duty of a journalist in a free-thinking democracy is to ask the hard questions of our politicians. Instead, both journalists and politicians are using the legacy of McCarthyism and the red scare to encourage the American public to be fearful.
Courtesy: LA Times
With self-described democratic socialist Bernie Sanders gaining in primary polls, many Americans will once again be confronted with the question: would you elect a socialist? Just 47 percent of Americans answered “yes” in a 2015 Gallup poll. More Americans would vote for an atheist (58 percent) or a Muslim (60 percent).