Post-decency politics: House Democrats use a hearing to attack free speech and a free press
There is a major difference between today and the McCarthyism of 1954. Back then, when attorney Welch objected to the Republican senator trashing his client, the press lionized Welch. Yet, as noted by Shellenberger and Taibbi, today's media have remained largely silent as fellow reporters were attacked for covering the Twitter censorship story.
If Joseph Welch appeared today to
support free speech, he might very well be dismissed as some QAnon conspiracy
theorist or "Putin lover." But his words from the past — that "until this
moment … I think I have never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness"
— should be read to every one of these members. It is not that we expect
decorum from our leaders today, but decency itself now seems as irrelevant as
reason.