First wordTHE Palace and the Supreme Court had better take note, if they are still oblivious to what is happening in Congress.Although the House quad select committee and good government standing committee have arrogated to themselves powers belonging to other branches of government, the victims of usurpation have not reacted quickly to stop the poaching. The Commission on Audit has said nothing to protest the appropriation of its exclusive authority to audit all government accounts. The Office of the President merely watched while the quadcomm commandeered the law enforcement powers of the executive.And the Supreme Court has not stirred while the quadcomm postures like a court in its public hearings. And cites so many civil servants in contempt.Walter Lippmann described such a situation as 'a derangement of functions' in a democratic government, at the time of the notorious public hearings of Sen. Joe McCarthy in the 1950s, when he roused public alarm about alleged communists in the US federal government, particularly the State Department and the US Army. Lippmann warned about a malady of democratic government — the devitalization of executive power and the pressures for control by the representative assembly, and the consequent weakening of the nation.What is happening in the House of Representatives in Congress today — with its unrelenting inquisition into alleged misuse of public funds — is no different from the 1950s crusade launched by Sen. Joe McCarthy to expose an alleged communist spy ring in the US government. It was then that the nightmare of McCarthyism and the witch hunt took hold of America. If we are not careful and discerning about what is happening in our public life, the nation could fall into the same hole of confusion and bewilderment as Washington during that era.Caveat for the HouseI write this as a friendly warning to House Speaker Martin Romualdez and the members of the House of Representatives that their inquiry into alleged misuse of confidential funds has become a deplorable example of demagoguery that can only end in discredit for the demagogue, even if they succeed in embarrassing the vice president.I am convinced that the ongoing crusade of the House is demagogic and revolting in its tactics, and is similar in kind, and is as wretched as the infamous crusade of Joe McCarthy to expose alleged communists in the US government.I am writing this as a caution to Speaker Romualdez and the members of the House that their crusade is a reversion to the ignoble tactics of Joe McCarthy and McCarthyism — and like the original can only end in failure for its perpetrators. This could mutate into a potent issue against Congress and the Marcos administration in the coming campaign for the 2025 general election.I happen to be knowledgeable about the sorry history and mischief of Joe McCarthy and McCarthyism, because back in the 1960s, I wrote a paper on McCarthy to fulfill a requirement in a course on literature and politics. I concluded in that study that McCarthy was an important lesson for Philippine politics and journalism in light of the then raging Cold War.Instead of quoting myself in that long-ago piece, I want to call attention to perhaps the definitive book on Joe McCarthy and McCarthyism, 'Senator Joe McCarthy,' by Richard Rovere (Methuen and Co., London, 1959). Rovere was a noted political journalist and author; he was a former staff member of the New Yorker, of London's Spectator, and was on the editorial board of the American Scholar.In the first chapter of his book, Rovere gave an overview of McCarthy and his exploits that neatly summed up the man and his fate: 'What he was and what he did.'The book drew superlative reviews: 'a brilliant book' (The Daily Herald); 'a brilliant, fascinating and profound study of the late senator; a brilliant character study' (The Economist).I quote here some of Rovere's opening paragraphs:'The late Joseph R. McCarthy, a United States senator from Wisconsin, was in many ways the most gifted demagogue ever bred on these shores. No bolder seditionist ever moved among us — nor any politician with a surer, swifter access to the dark places of the American mind.'The major phase of McCarthy's career was mercifully short. It began in 1950 three years after he had taken his seat in the Senate, where he had seemed a dim and inconsiderable figure. It ended in 1954, when the Senate passed a resolution of censure against him. That was three years before his death at the age of forty-eight.'Both his rise and his fall were accomplished with breathtaking speed. He served three largely undistinguished years in the Senate as a senator from Wisconsin until 1950. Then he discovered communism — almost by inadvertence, as Columbus discovered America... By the spring of the year, he was a towering figure, and from then on, no man was closer than he to the center of American consciousness or more central to the world's consciousness of America...'He held two presidents captive — or as nearly captive as any presidents of the United States have ever been held, in the conduct of the nation's affairs. Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower, from early 1950 through late 1954, could never act without weighing the effect of their plans upon McCarthy and the forces he led, and in consequence, there were times when, because of this man, they could not act at all. He had an enormous impact on American foreign policy at a time when that policy bore heavily on the course of world history.'Little of importance was learned except that McCarthy had little of importance to say. He had been talking through his hat; if there were communists in the State Department, he did not know who they were. Nevertheless, he had cued himself in. The lights played over him. Eyes were upon him. The show was his. Within a matter of weeks, his name was known and heard everywhere. Henceforth, it would be hard to find anyone who was unaware of him.'McCarthy was a show, and so are the quadcomm public hearings in our Congress.yenobserver@gmail.com
