Roy Edroso says he was too young to recall McCarthy’s Red Scare. (Me too.) Eventually, conservatives stopped accusing liberals of palling around with the Soviets, mostly because red-baiting stopped working for them.
But they found other ways to smack down any uppity lefties with a platform who forgot their places and stepped out of line. Ward Churchill, for those who remember the post-9/11 hysteria. Others today.
Nothing has changed, only the moral panic du jour. Republican culture warriors will continue to accuse liberals of teaching “critical race theory” as long as “they think it works,” as Bill Clinton observed of Republican tactics in 2004. Or until something that leaves a bigger bruise comes along:
“The ones with intellectual credentials they would prefer not to tarnish tend to admit the CRT charge is bullshit but feel it’s okay to use because their supporters, the salt of the earth, feel it’s true because something something elitism, e.g.:
Edroso wraps up:
In one sense this is nothing very new; as mentioned, conservatives have whipped up hysterias before, particularly when they had nothing else going for them, and as usual they’re targeting people to whom others might listen. The disturbing extra ingredient of this one is the linkage with race, and the claim that white people are getting a bum rap.
The force behind their formula has always been the accusation that the pointy-heads are aiding and abetting an external enemy who poses an existential threat to the nation — the Soviets, Saddam Hussein, Bin Laden. The enemy in this case has so far been left unnamed. In the anti-CRT laws they’re passing, conservatives are careful to stipulate that they’re trying to protect members of any race who feel bad about what their teacher taught them — even though it’s only been white people complaining. But as their movement grows in power and confidence I don’t expect that will hold. Soon enough they’re going to start saying out loud who their enemy is — and then, friends, you better hold on tight.
Edroso’s behind the news and needs to watch this. Conservatives are already saying out loud who their enemies are. They have met the enemy, and he is YOU.