Readers React: How are Trump’s cries of socialism much different from McCarthy’s red-baiting?
To the editor: As I read the L.A. Times’ article on the trend by presidents and other politicians toward “increasingly simple, straightforward sentences that a casual listener could more readily follow,” I recalled the staccato speech pattern of Sen. Joseph McCarthy addressing the 1952 Republican National Convention:
“Even if there were only one communist in the State Department, that would be one communist too many.”
Similar to McCarthy, President Trump used the scare word du jour, “socialist,” in his Feb. 11 address to a rally crowd in El Paso, Texas: “So I again say to you — and I say it for the world to hear — America will never be a socialist country.”
Substitute “communist” for “socialist,” and one would be hard-pressed to distinguish Trump from McCarthy.
Walter Gajewski, Long Beach
Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
A cure for the common opinion
Get thought-provoking perspectives with our weekly newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
