By Renee O’Connor, Opinion Editor
What is McCarthyism? McCarthyism, named after U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy, was the political practice defined by political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals. McCarthy spread fear of communist influence on American institutions. This was defined as the “red scare.” Many of the accused communists were blacklisted or fired from their jobs. Most didn’t even align with the communist party.
According to MSNBC, J.D, Vance recently threatened that anyone who said anything negative against Charlie Kirk should be reported to their jobs, an act reminiscent of McCarthyism and certainly an example of the more recent cancel culture.
The difference between cancel culture for the right and left is prominent. The cancel culture against the right was for those spewing hateful, racist or homophobic rhetoric. The cancel culture against the left is for those who have been questioning or condemning those in power.
Of course, this goes without saying, there’s extremists on both sides. Anyone threatening violence or being incredibly hateful to anyone should be reprimanded. But that’s not what Vance is talking about.
According to MSNBC, Jimmy Kimmel was ripped off the air for saying, “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.” That’s it. That’s the whole quote.
This is the definition of McCarthyism. Kimmel lost his job over this remark. This wasn’t in any way, shape, or form disrespectful to Kirk himself.
If this was enough for him to lose his job, I’m terrified for what the next few years under this administration will look like. The reason Kimmel was yanked off the air was pressure from the Trump administration to comply with their standards.
There are more reasons we should be scared for our country. The increasing travel restrictions, birth control being thrown away, the pressure from our own president to be even more divided. That is something no other president in history has done. When Kirk was killed, Trump immediately blamed the left, with no knowledge of the shooter.
We need to come together as a country and realize we are being pitted against each other. To fight against McCarthyism, we need to stand together. Everyone needs to come to the realization that our democracy is being threatened. Trump has said he plans to run in 2028. When will people realize he’s not joking?
Many people have been threatened with repercussions, as heard from J.D. Vance, if they dare exercise their free speech.
Now, according to MSNBC, Trump is claiming that negative press opinions about him are illegal.
“The stories are 97 percent bad. They’ll take a great story and they’ll make it bad. See, I think that’s really illegal, personally.” Is this not alarming to anyone else?
We need to protect free speech. This is an insane attack against our first amendment, and we can no longer ignore the consequences of voting for Trump. Go to rallies, donate to organizations, or even write about it in your school’s newspaper. Exercise your right to free speech while you still can.