I, too, grew up in the McCarthy Era (Joe, not Gene). The Communist witchhunt, so-called, led to infiltration of the Communist Party USA by undercover FBI agents to such an extent that the Commies couldn't even stage a picnic. They had what are now called "high negatives" anyway. The doper dirtball hippies of the '60's, led by the Fondas, Kerrys, Clintons et al made common cause with the Commies over a period of years to take over the Democrat Party, which is now essentially the old Communist Party USA. Recall that Gov. John Connally switched to the GOP in the early 70's, saying, "I didn't leave the Democrat Party, it left me." A great many of the old less liberal Democrats meandered to the GOP over time, further diluting that organization's support for conservative principles.baldeagle wrote:And when I was growing up the communists were infiltrating both parties and all levels of government, and now they have control of almost everything. They sent us off to Vietnam and forgot to secure the home front. As a consequence we now see the country disintegrating before our eyes and seem almost powerless to do anything about it.
One factor I am becoming more and more sensitive to. I just finished reading the 4th volume of Robert Caro's bio of LBJ. One of the things that struck me, not for the first time, was the implacable hatred between Robert Kennedy and LBJ. I've been aware of that feature of their relationship for many years, but now it occurs to me that even though they hated each other they and their supporters and colleagues still worked together to achieve and maintain power. The Republicans are not nearly so efficient at resolving ideological disagreements; they tend to stay home if they don't get their way, while the Dem's come up with a compromise of sorts, win the election and go on their way, figuring it is more important to get part of their program going now rather than insist on ideological purity. "I would rather be right than President" doesn't resonate in Communist minds like it does for conservatives, apparently.