慎防“新麦卡锡主义”逆流
2023-01-15 12:08阅读：
全球都在警惕新麦卡锡主义的逆流出现，将美国右翼的极端主义带进外交领域，也使得中美两国元首见面后的和缓气氛受到不确定因素冲击，为今年中美关系的开局带来负面变数。
历经15轮投票，美众议院才选出凯文·麦卡锡为议长，结束漫长的议会内部角力，也显示共和党内部极右派系“自由党团”的势力强大，以仅仅20位众议员的力量，一度瘫痪议事机构，最终逼使麦卡锡让步，让他未来在政策上要对极右势力低头、妥协，也势将改变国会山的权力结构。
在这样的政治气候中，美国的内政会陷入困境，两党与派系的倾轧都会导致议事堵塞，陷民生于不义，也将面对舆论的炮火。但各种不同派系很可能在对华外交问题上“有志一同”，高举越强硬越受欢迎的牌子。麦卡锡当选议长后，预料内政上难以有所作为，他的最佳选择就是发动反华外交秀，凝聚两党共识。
这也是滋养新麦卡锡主义的肥沃土壤。它用外交的谎言，掩饰内政的谎言，用对华的鹰派拉拢内政的鹰派，让众议院共和党势力以外交救内政。但它在本质上和20世纪50年代“麦卡锡主义”同出一辙，虚张声势，制造恐惧，收割政治利益。
The New McCarthyism Is Coming
Is that you, Kevin?
JEFFREY C. ISAAC
It has always been clear that a Republican takeover of the House of
Representatives would signal real danger for American democracy.
Last week’s drama surrounding Kevin McCarthy’s ascension to the H
ouse Speakership was a sideshow. The demands of the so-called
“far-right” Gaetz Gang—“so-called” because the entire House
Republican leadership and most of its members are far-right—for
House rules changes was never a sincere effort to promote greater
transparency and deliberation.
More important, the changes were always motivated by a genuine
far-right agenda far beyond legislative “process”: to weaken the
Biden administration and the Democratic Party, to harass and
intimidate all so-called “deep state” agencies of the federal
government, and to wage a culture war against liberalism.
'[Republicans] cannot govern. But they do not seek to govern. They
seek to lay waste to what they despise...'
McCarthy’s nauseating encomiums to “democracy” notwithstanding, it
is now even clearer that what House Republicans have in store for
us is a version of “democracy” best described by the influential,
Carl Schmitt, whose political ideas helped to pave the way for the
rise of Nazism in the 1930’s:
“Every actual democracy rests on the principle that not only are
equals equals but unequals will not be treated equally. Democracy
requires, first, homogeneity and second—if the need
arises—elimination or eradication of heterogeneity . . . A
democracy demonstrates its political power by knowing how to refuse
or keep at bay something foreign and unequal that threatens its
homogeneity.”
This is precisely what the new McCarthyism promises: the
investigation, punishment, and suppression, if not the more ominous
“eradication,” of what is “foreign” and “threatening” to the MAGA
vision: the Democratic Party, liberalism and progressivism in all
of its variations, and especially “wokeness” as it has supposedly
corrupted and debased all educational, scientific, and legal
institutions. And while McCarthy himself speaks out of both sides
of his mouth—playing to his red base while also pretending to be
“moderate”—his entire leadership team, with his blessing, is
already laying the foundation for this latest MAGA assault on
liberal democracy.
Exhibit 1: News outlets report that plans are underway for the
House Armed Services Committee to investigate and purge “wokeness”
in the armed forces. Rep. Mike Rogers—the so-called “moderate” that
assaulted Matt Gaetz on the House floor after McCarthy’s failed
fourteenth ballot last week—is in line to assume the chairmanship
of the Committee. And he has already declared: “All this wokeness
in the military, we are going to be aggressively trying to root
that stuff out.” As Paul Waldman has pointed out, there is
absolutely no evidence that the U.S. military is overtaken with
“wokeness.” But there is a great fear on the right that traditional
gender norms, and especially conceptions of “masculinity,” have
been waning in society at large, including the military, and this
fear is being stoked daily by Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and a
host of other right-wing media personalities. And so it is now
Republican dogma that liberal gender norms, and the protections
they offer to many citizens, must be eradicated. This obviously
represents a threat to women, LGBTQ individuals, and perhaps even
ethnic and racial minorities. But it also represents a threat to
all of those inside the military, in the officer corps and in the
military academies and educational institutions, who are working to
create a culture of greater tolerance and understanding of the
world. In short, it represents a threat to the very practice of
military professionalism.
We can thus look forward to Benghazi-like hearings in which General
Milley and a range of other military leaders who have refused to
follow the example of Mike Flynn will be subjected to public
inquisition and debasement.
Exhibit 2: Sunday’s Tweet from Rep. Steve Scalise, McCarthy’s loyal
lieutenant who will now step into the role of House Majority
Leader:
\u201c\ud83d\udea8 THIS WEEK\u2014The House Republican Majority
will move to pass legislation to:- Defund the 87,000 new IRS
agents- Establish a committee on the weaponization of the federal
government against citizens- End SPR oil sales to China- Hold woke
prosecutors accountable\u201d
— Steve Scalise (@Steve Scalise) 1673205405
Every one of these promises represents an attack on the federal
government. The “SPR oil sales” is a nod to the investigation of
Hunter Biden and on Joe Biden himself (the logic of this is laid
out in Barton Gellman’s recent Atlanticpiece, “The Impeachment of
Joe Biden”). And items two and four are clearly aimed at the
Justice Department’s investigations and prosecutions of the January
6, 2021 insurrection, including its cases against Donald Trump, and
is possibly also aimed at the House January 6 Committee itself
(promised by McCarthy back in November).
Exhibit 3: The “committee on the weaponization of the federal
government against citizens” is a very serious, and ominous,
initiative that is clearly intended to counter, and undermine, the
now-terminated January 6 Committee. The new committee, a
subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, will be chaired by
Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan. As the New York Timesreports, the
Republican initiative will grant Jordan extensive power:
“authority to subpoena the Justice Department for information about
the special counsel inquiry into Mr. Trump’s attempts to overturn
the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents, along
with other politically charged matters like an open tax
investigation into President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden . . . [it]
would also grant Mr. Jordan’s panel the power to receive the same
highly classified information that intelligence agencies make
available to their oversight committee, the House Permanent Select
Committee on Intelligence.”
This committee is being promoted by Republicans as “a new Church
Committee.” But it is likely to be more similar to the infamous
House Un-American Activities Committee which, along with the Senate
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations chaired by the infamous
Joseph McCarthy, contributed immeasurably to the evisceration of
civil liberties during the 1950’s, and indeed created a new term in
the lexicon of American politics: “McCarthyism.” When the records
of McCarthy’s closed, executive sessions were finally made public
by the Senate in 2004, Senators Carl Levin and Susan Collins issued
this statement:
“Senator McCarthy’s zeal to uncover subversion and espionage led to
disturbing excesses. His browbeating tactics destroyed careers of
people who were not involved in the infiltration of our government.
His freewheeling style caused both the Senate and the Subcommittee
to revise the rules governing future investigations, and prompted
the courts to act to protect the Constitutional rights of witnesses
at Congressional hearings. … These hearings are a part of our
national past that we can neither afford to forget nor permit to
re-occur.”
It is very clear that this past is now prologue.
House Republicans are taking aim at the Biden administration; the
Democratic Party, including their own Democratic colleagues; and a
wide range of governmental institutions deemed “tyrannical.” They
will use their investigative and subpoena power to destroy
individuals, disrupt the process of government, attack opponents,
and delegitimize the very institutions of liberal democracy. And
they will be aided, abetted, and incited by a far-reaching network
of media institutions and social media platforms.
They cannot govern. But they do not seek to govern. They seek to
lay waste to what they despise, and especially anything that is
“foreign” to their perverse idea of “American Greatness.” What they
despise is nothing less than political pluralism and liberal
democracy itself.
