"Tail Gunner Joe" wasn't that easy to get rid of.  careers were wrecked and some lives were lost.  on a scale of one to peak Stalinism not so bad, admittedly, but I wouldn't, from our relatively safer vantage, underestimate the McCarthy putsch's viciousness and impact.  imho the US still hasn't recovered from that era;  red-baiting still works and socialism is still a dirty word.  which is exactly what the rentier classes wanted, so Joe M wasn't a failure from a longer POV.

OTOH it is also easy to underestimate the speed with which things can change, and I do think the right wing in the US is laying the groundwork for a potential crackdown, with their detention centres and erosion of posse comitatus and pan-surveillance and all the rest.

neither panic nor complacency seems to be in order...  unfortunately in the absence of clear and present panic we do tend to get complacent :-(

good diary, anyway.

The difference between theory and practise in practise ...