Requiem for Sen. Joseph McCarthy
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine,et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Grant them eternal rest, Lord,and let perpetual light shine on them.
~ Requiem Mass text, Introit
Two weeks ago, the Christian world solemnly celebrated the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the Jews the Feast of Purim. Easter has passed; nevertheless, because of the 40th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (marked yesterday), my heart is still in a solemn mood, so I will endeavor to memorialize another authentic American hero, a forgotten and complex man.
Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., was a man's man whose very name to this day engenders fear, malediction and loathing from progressive intellectuals, academics, Hollywood and politicians – both Republicans and Democrats who if they were honest, must realize deep, deep down in their hearts that they are mere pygmies to this towering colossus. I remember Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
Many of the immortal masters of classical music – Palestrina, Victoria, Vivaldi, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Verdi and others – have written their greatest masterpieces in this most sacred genre of requiem, music that continues to probe the profound, gloomy depths of the human condition to offer this hellish world a glimmer of hope for redemption.
Our modern-day Joe McCarthy, conservative writer Ann Coulter, one of the few contemporary intellectuals with the guts to place McCarthy in his proper historical context as a truly heroic and transcendent figure, had these words regarding the death of one of America's greatest political figures:
Contrary to today's image of McCarthy as a despised Torquemada, McCarthy was given a rare state funeral with a private memorial service in the Senate chamber, his seat covered with flowers. St. Matthew's Cathedral bestowed him with the highest honor the Catholic Church can confer, performing a Solemn Pontifical Requiem Mass before 100 priests and 2,000 well-wishers. Seventy senators attended his funeral, as did J. Edgar Hoover. Thirty thousand Americans lined up outside the Washington funeral home where McCarthy lay to pay their final respects from early in the morning until late at night. Condolences poured in to McCarthy's wife, amounting to more than 70 bags of mail.
Does this magnificent tribute cited above merit the demagoguery, vitriol and slander McCarthy's name to this day continues to engender by liberals, progressives, the propaganda press and by many uninformed Americans? Only if those 100 priests, those 2,000 congregants that crammed St. Matthew's Cathedral, the over 30,000 American citizens that crowded outside weeping into the night and the millions of condolences sent to McCarthy's widow paying their respects were all gullible, misbegotten fools. Yet, today there is not a $10 dollar plaque commemorating his name in Washington, D.C.! I remember Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
Who was the real Joe McCarthy? Was he a conservative Republican zealot that irrationally saw a communist, a communist sympathizer, an "anti-American" under every bed? Was he a man drunk with his own vast political power?
McCarthy was a man of singular vision, an authentic American who with irrepressible zeal and courage sought to root out communists, communist sympathizers and spies in the State Department, the Treasury Department, the military and in other areas of the government – but also in Hollywood, the unions, the academy and throughout American society.
Coulter writes:
McCarthy was a popularizer, a brawler. Republican elitists abhor demagogic appeals to working-class Democrats. Fighting like a Democrat is a breach of etiquette worse than using the wrong fork. McCarthy is sniffed at for not playing by Marquis of Queensbury Rules – rules of engagement demanded only of Republicans. Well, without McCarthy, Republicans might be congratulating themselves on their excellent behavior from the gulag right now.
Coulter understands that politics is not a gentleman's sport as did McCarthy who didn't attack communists, Democrats, progressives, socialists and anarchists simply to be a partisan hack. McCarthy deeply loved America and sought to defend her from enemies both at home and abroad with every fiber of his being.
McCarthy's worldview, especially apropos in today's corrupt, compromising times, was blunt and profound – "You cannot offer friendship to tyrants and murderers ... without advancing the cause of tyranny and murder."
What would happen to America if its citizens ignored the uninspired platitudes spewed out daily by Obama, Clinton and McCain and demanded that our presidential candidates and elected politicians followed McCarthy's trenchant worldview, proving their mettle that they could coherently (without stuttering) delineate a foreign and domestic policy founded upon McCarthy's transcendent words above? I remember Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
Ann Coulter goes to the heart of why liberals had to destroy McCarthy. His zeal, political skills and efficiency would have made the Democrat Party a 20th century version of the 19th century Whig Party – deceased. Coulter writes:
I know he got a bad rap because there are no monuments to Joe McCarthy. Liberals had to destroy McCarthy because he exposed the entire liberal establishment as having sheltered Soviet spies. ... There's always a conflict of interest when people who don't really like America are called upon to defend it.
Once again, we return to the seminal question: Was McCarthy a villain or an American hero? That depends on your state of mind, your heart, your actions, your worldview of history. Simply put, if you sympathize with or aid those who would undermine the laws and ideas America was founded upon or her people both here and abroad, you were a sworn enemy of Sen. Joseph McCarthy. However, if you love America and the Constitution and seek the best for this country and her people, you are a blood brother of McCarthy.
Without McCarthy's grunt work in the 1950s, virtually alone, there couldn't have been a Ronald Reagan who 30 years later would strike the mortal blow against the Soviet Union and worldwide communist expansion, saving untold millions of lives.
To you, Sen. Joseph McCarthy – you were a colossus among ordinary men and a truly, bona fide American hero. Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Grant them [Sen. Joseph McCarthy] eternal rest, Lord, and let perpetual light shine on them [Sen. Joseph McCarthy]. Amen.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine,et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Grant them eternal rest, Lord,and let perpetual light shine on them.
~ Requiem Mass text, Introit
Two weeks ago, the Christian world solemnly celebrated the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the Jews the Feast of Purim. Easter has passed; nevertheless, because of the 40th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (marked yesterday), my heart is still in a solemn mood, so I will endeavor to memorialize another authentic American hero, a forgotten and complex man.
Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., was a man's man whose very name to this day engenders fear, malediction and loathing from progressive intellectuals, academics, Hollywood and politicians – both Republicans and Democrats who if they were honest, must realize deep, deep down in their hearts that they are mere pygmies to this towering colossus. I remember Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
Many of the immortal masters of classical music – Palestrina, Victoria, Vivaldi, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Verdi and others – have written their greatest masterpieces in this most sacred genre of requiem, music that continues to probe the profound, gloomy depths of the human condition to offer this hellish world a glimmer of hope for redemption.
Our modern-day Joe McCarthy, conservative writer Ann Coulter, one of the few contemporary intellectuals with the guts to place McCarthy in his proper historical context as a truly heroic and transcendent figure, had these words regarding the death of one of America's greatest political figures:
Contrary to today's image of McCarthy as a despised Torquemada, McCarthy was given a rare state funeral with a private memorial service in the Senate chamber, his seat covered with flowers. St. Matthew's Cathedral bestowed him with the highest honor the Catholic Church can confer, performing a Solemn Pontifical Requiem Mass before 100 priests and 2,000 well-wishers. Seventy senators attended his funeral, as did J. Edgar Hoover. Thirty thousand Americans lined up outside the Washington funeral home where McCarthy lay to pay their final respects from early in the morning until late at night. Condolences poured in to McCarthy's wife, amounting to more than 70 bags of mail.
Does this magnificent tribute cited above merit the demagoguery, vitriol and slander McCarthy's name to this day continues to engender by liberals, progressives, the propaganda press and by many uninformed Americans? Only if those 100 priests, those 2,000 congregants that crammed St. Matthew's Cathedral, the over 30,000 American citizens that crowded outside weeping into the night and the millions of condolences sent to McCarthy's widow paying their respects were all gullible, misbegotten fools. Yet, today there is not a $10 dollar plaque commemorating his name in Washington, D.C.! I remember Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
Who was the real Joe McCarthy? Was he a conservative Republican zealot that irrationally saw a communist, a communist sympathizer, an "anti-American" under every bed? Was he a man drunk with his own vast political power?
McCarthy was a man of singular vision, an authentic American who with irrepressible zeal and courage sought to root out communists, communist sympathizers and spies in the State Department, the Treasury Department, the military and in other areas of the government – but also in Hollywood, the unions, the academy and throughout American society.
Coulter writes:
McCarthy was a popularizer, a brawler. Republican elitists abhor demagogic appeals to working-class Democrats. Fighting like a Democrat is a breach of etiquette worse than using the wrong fork. McCarthy is sniffed at for not playing by Marquis of Queensbury Rules – rules of engagement demanded only of Republicans. Well, without McCarthy, Republicans might be congratulating themselves on their excellent behavior from the gulag right now.
Coulter understands that politics is not a gentleman's sport as did McCarthy who didn't attack communists, Democrats, progressives, socialists and anarchists simply to be a partisan hack. McCarthy deeply loved America and sought to defend her from enemies both at home and abroad with every fiber of his being.
McCarthy's worldview, especially apropos in today's corrupt, compromising times, was blunt and profound – "You cannot offer friendship to tyrants and murderers ... without advancing the cause of tyranny and murder."
What would happen to America if its citizens ignored the uninspired platitudes spewed out daily by Obama, Clinton and McCain and demanded that our presidential candidates and elected politicians followed McCarthy's trenchant worldview, proving their mettle that they could coherently (without stuttering) delineate a foreign and domestic policy founded upon McCarthy's transcendent words above? I remember Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
Ann Coulter goes to the heart of why liberals had to destroy McCarthy. His zeal, political skills and efficiency would have made the Democrat Party a 20th century version of the 19th century Whig Party – deceased. Coulter writes:
I know he got a bad rap because there are no monuments to Joe McCarthy. Liberals had to destroy McCarthy because he exposed the entire liberal establishment as having sheltered Soviet spies. ... There's always a conflict of interest when people who don't really like America are called upon to defend it.
Once again, we return to the seminal question: Was McCarthy a villain or an American hero? That depends on your state of mind, your heart, your actions, your worldview of history. Simply put, if you sympathize with or aid those who would undermine the laws and ideas America was founded upon or her people both here and abroad, you were a sworn enemy of Sen. Joseph McCarthy. However, if you love America and the Constitution and seek the best for this country and her people, you are a blood brother of McCarthy.
Without McCarthy's grunt work in the 1950s, virtually alone, there couldn't have been a Ronald Reagan who 30 years later would strike the mortal blow against the Soviet Union and worldwide communist expansion, saving untold millions of lives.
To you, Sen. Joseph McCarthy – you were a colossus among ordinary men and a truly, bona fide American hero. Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Grant them [Sen. Joseph McCarthy] eternal rest, Lord, and let perpetual light shine on them [Sen. Joseph McCarthy]. Amen.
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