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The Age of Unreason
We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men — not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular.
This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy’s methods to keep silent, or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities. As a nation we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age. We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.
The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn’t create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it — and rather successfully. Cassius was right. “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”
Good night, and good luck.
Edward R. Murrow:
A Report on Senator Joseph R. McCarthy
See it Now (CBS-TV, March 9, 1954)
Fools
It’s Mourning in America
And yet, many Americans believe that Trump will somehow bring back this:
You know what? That’s an ad. That was never real.
Advertisers use persuasive strategies to present the world in an idealized way. To entice us into believing that something completely unreal is attainable. That we have to have it. That our lives will be better when we get it. That something is wrong with us if we aren’t like the people in the ad. And this is a very persuasive ad.
But it’s not the truth.
A couple of blocks away from this perfect Reagan-loving community were non-white people struggling to make ends meet and survive in neighborhoods that looked very different from this one.
Down the road were women fighting for equal rights.
Up the street were gay men suffering from a mysterious fatal disease that wouldn’t be acknowledged by the Reagan administration until it had wreaked havoc on the lives of millions.
That was real.
But this ad casts a spell the same way that Trump does to his supporters. And they continue to fall for his empty and vague rhetoric- hook, line, and sinker.
Unfortunately, once the spell is broken, they are going to be in for a rude awakening.
Check out this really thoughtful NPR interview with Pakistani novelist Moshin Hamid for an interesting perspective on this.
The Bar
From Politico: 
Trump Defense Kit
