Miscellany

Do you know who the ancestors of Joe McCarthy are?

Do you know who the ancestors of Joe McCarthy are? Pericles, Marc Antony and Franklin Roosevelt. This startling genealogy of the man from Wisconsin we owe to Will Herberg in the The New Leader, January 18, 1954.

In case the connection is not readily apparent, be advised that all these men were engaged in “government by rabble-rousing,” that they committed the crime of directly appealing to masses — or “mobs” — in the agora, the forum and before the radio. (Why people sitting mutely and singly before the radio or TV screen should become a “mob” Herberg neglects to explain.) Pericles, Antony and FDR stand accused of the crime of believing that masses of people may be allowed a direct voice in the determination of their destiny.

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