Monday, April 04, 2005
Republicans ignored the facts... in the 50's
Nut-bar republicanism is not new (surprise) and lily-livered liberals are not new either. Recovered history for you.
Jax
One scholar in attendance, noting that homosexuals were the scapegoats of McCarthyites, recalled that in the summer of 1950 Congress conducted a study to determine if homosexuals posed a threat to national security. Investigators could not find a single instance in America where a homosexual had betrayed American secrets. Of course this finding did not stop right wingers from proceeding to hound homosexuals from government employment. So why did the rightwing claim that homosexuals threatened national security if it wasn't true? It was for political reasons. It was an easy sell to their base. Another historian observed that not even liberals leaped to the defense of the homosexuals. No one then wanted to be accused of being soft, which an association with queer people might have suggested--hence the support given to the cause known as Virile Liberalism. By the 1950s patriotism had come to be defined by one's sexuality. (Link)
Jax
One scholar in attendance, noting that homosexuals were the scapegoats of McCarthyites, recalled that in the summer of 1950 Congress conducted a study to determine if homosexuals posed a threat to national security. Investigators could not find a single instance in America where a homosexual had betrayed American secrets. Of course this finding did not stop right wingers from proceeding to hound homosexuals from government employment. So why did the rightwing claim that homosexuals threatened national security if it wasn't true? It was for political reasons. It was an easy sell to their base. Another historian observed that not even liberals leaped to the defense of the homosexuals. No one then wanted to be accused of being soft, which an association with queer people might have suggested--hence the support given to the cause known as Virile Liberalism. By the 1950s patriotism had come to be defined by one's sexuality. (Link)
