McCarthyism has returned to the United States – and this time it’s even more dangerous | Judith Levine

Trump’s campaign of repression echoes the red scare. But now the government has bigger ambitions and more powerful tools There are many parallels between the first McCarthy era, roughly 1946 to 1956, and Trump’s campaign of political repression, his own updated McCarthyism. Both regimes crafted a monster of quasi-facts and innuendo and fed it with fear: an enemy within, well-organized and financed, secretive and violent, allied with evil foreigners and bent on overthrowing capitalism, democracy and Christian morality. Both used flagrantly unconstitutional means to cleanse the nation of the spectral menace. Continue reading...

Judith Levine · Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 3:00 AM
US news | The Guardian

McCarthyism has returned to the United States – and this time it’s even more dangerous | Judith Levine

Trump’s campaign of repression echoes the red scare. But now the government has bigger ambitions and more powerful tools

There are many parallels between the first McCarthy era, roughly 1946 to 1956, and Trump’s campaign of political repression, his own updated McCarthyism.

Both regimes crafted a monster of quasi-facts and innuendo and fed it with fear: an enemy within, well-organized and financed, secretive and violent, allied with evil foreigners and bent on overthrowing capitalism, democracy and Christian morality. Both used flagrantly unconstitutional means to cleanse the nation of the spectral menace.

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