Red Scare Part III
From Roscoe to Richard to Ron: The Demonization of Civil Service
Andrew Jackson envisioned a federal government built on the “spoils system.” But once he was handed the keys to the Oval Office he quickly realized that public service should not be a “means of promoting individual interests” but rather should be “an instrument created solely for the service of the people.”
One hundred and ninety-five years later, in New Hampshire, Ron DeSantis announced a new doctrine. The victor doesn’t just get the spoils; he gets to see heads roll.
It’s such an escalation from Drain the Swamp, Fake News, and even the Deep State conspiracy; it prompted conservative author Charlie Sykes to warn that Republicans are moving from ‘Cruelty is the point” to “brutality is the point.”
Slitting Throats
Richard Nixon graduated from Duke University Law School in 1937. From 1942 to 1946, he served as a Naval officer in D.C. with a short stint in the Pacific Rim. He moved from active duty to the Navy Reserves to run for Congress and, shortly after being sworn in, Congressman Richard Nixon was investigating disloyalty, subversive activities, and Communist ties as a member of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Mesmerized by Senator Joe McCarthy’s hunt for disloyal government employees, the Committee was the perfect spot for young Nixon to build his brand.
The House Committee on Un-American Activities ordered dozens of movie and radio types to testify about their ties to Communism. Ten of them, who had all been affiliated with the Communist Party at some point in their lives, were convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to testify. The “Hollywood Ten” were sentenced to a year of imprisonment, fined $1,000 (over $12,000 today), and blacklisted from future work in Hollywood.
Then, of course, there was Alger Hiss. In 1929, Hiss graduated from Harvard Law School and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendall Holmes. By 1933, Hiss was working as an attorney for the federal government. Through a series of twists, turns, and promotions Hiss found himself in a position of foreign policy influence during President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration. Three years later, in 1948, he found himself in the crosshairs of Richard Nixon. That young Congressman California with a grand vision for his future who had already shown a willingness to smear reputations.
Hiss was ultimately convicted of lying to Congress for which he served a little over three years. Decades later, when the Nixon tapes were released, Nixon can be heard boasting - “I convicted him in the press, I played them like a master.” Hiss went to the grave denying Nixon’s allegations. The FBI’s record vault is available so you can judge for yourself.
Stepping Over Bodies
DeSantis is joining a shameful historical pattern that has repeatedly failed but, hey, if DeSantis wants to go down in the “dustbin of history” as a modern-day Joe McCarthy; that’s on him.
There are 2.5 million people serving full-time and part-time in our military and 2.0 million civil employees serving the American taxpayer at the federal level. But that just scratches the surface. There are another 18 million or so people who devote themselves every day to serving the American public and our Democracy. Teachers. First Responders. Healthcare Providers. Park Rangers. Engineers. Letter Carriers. Scientists of all kinds. Inspectors and Investigators. People who make sure that your garbage is collected and your water is drinkable. And, yes, even the cranky old guy at the DMV who makes sure kids know how to drive.
Add to those numbers Veterans, retirees and family members supported by a civil service salary. It’s easy to see that nearly everyone in America has been positively impacted personally by public service. Those people should never, ever vote for a candidate willing to disparage the people who work to make our lives better.
Red Scare Part III
University of Iowa History Professor, Landon R. Y. Storrs, wrote The Second Red Scare and the Unmaking of the New Deal Left. It’s called the Second Red Scare because we’ve seen this line of attack before.
In 1877, US Senator Roscoe Conkling (New York) coined the term “snivel service” after the nation began prioritizing qualifications over party loyalty as a condition of government employment. Then there was the Red Scare of 1920, which was a reaction to a time of high internal and external immigration. Thirty years later, came Red Scare Part II.
“This populist hostility to government experts became a useful tool for those who sought to roll back liberal policies.” Landon R. Y. Storrs
Professor Storrs concluded that the “anticommunist crusade spawned a sprawling federal loyalty program that did not catch any spies but destroyed thousands of lives, stifled political debate and stymied effective policymaking long after the scare subsided.” Other measures, he found, did ferret out espionage. Investigations by professional investigators did work. The public slitting of throats did not.
Over the course of a decade, “more than 5 million federal workers were screened for communist ties.” They were screened, according to Professor Storrs, not just disloyalty but for “tendencies” as well. Tendencies such as “homosexuality, a woman’s use of her birth name rather than husband’s surname, ‘sympathy for the underdog,’ and socializing across ‘the color line’.”
In the end, “about 25,000 underwent the FBI’s ‘full field investigation,’ about 2,700 were dismissed, and about 12,000 resigned. The stigma of investigation—regardless of outcome—destroyed careers. Chronic unemployment plagued the accused, as loyalty tests spread to the private sector.”
“Gov. DeSantis’ threat to ‘start slitting throats’ of federal employees is dangerous, disgusting, disgraceful, and disqualifying,” President Everett Kelley, American Federation of Government Employees