Quote:
Originally posted by Spanky
Boy you are slow. I did not say they were committing treason by being a member of the communist party. However, if they did take funds from the Soviet Union to spy on the United States, which almost the entire leadership of the communist party did, or if I take any affirmative steps to overthrow the government, then yes that is treason.
You can be a part of a group that wants to overthrow the government, just like you can talk about murdering someone. Nothing illegal. But the minute you go out and attempt to murder someone, or attempt the violent overthrow of the US government, then that is a crime.
Someone who wants to overthrow the US government, or end our democracy is an enemy of the state. You make it sound like being a communist is like being a member of the Green party or a socialist party. The goal of communism is to end democracy. There is a huge difference.
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You keep on saying that these people who may have flirted with communism as an intellectual exercise in the 20s and 30s (which is when the bulk of the people brought before the HUAC were involved) was 'attempting the violent overthrow of the U.S. government. That's a load of bullshit. These were people who engaged in one of the fads of the day popular among intellectuals, generally from privileged backgrounds.
The other group of people who were involved with groups later determined to have been secretly funded by the Soviets were labor organizations. These labor organizations were not advocating the violent overthrow of the U.S. government either. They were attempting to win the right to collectively bargain for a living wage, decent hours, and a modicum of safety in the workplace.
Your take on U.S. history in this area sounds like it was taken directly from McCarthy's speeches. The fact of the matter is that McCarthy was an opportunist thug, looking for publicity and using a cynical and twisted political attack to get it. That's why he was latched on to by people like Nixon and Roy Cohn.
Notwithstanding the fact that you have called me both stupid and slow, I am trying to avoid getting in to ad hominem attacks. Therefore, I will suggest merely that your view of this era is perhaps a bit slanted, and that you might want to look at a few other sources to even out your understanding of McCarthy and the HUAC.
