Perhaps in the mistaken belief that they can gain some kind of competitive advantage over the GOP by charging Russian intervention for Donald Trump's victory, the Democrats are playing with fire. The likely burn victims are the First Amendment and other precious freedoms.
When liberals have helped to launch a witch hunt, Republican politicians have been pleased to boost it into the stratosphere. That's what happened after Harry Truman issued an executive order in March 1947 to establish "loyalty" investigations in every agency of the federal government.
Truman may have thought he was tossing GOP extremists a bone that they would stop to gnaw on. But he actually supplied them with red meat for an all-out assault on civil liberties. An ambitious new arrival in the House named Richard Nixon did his part to escalate the witch hunting. So did other Republican lawmakers, like Sens. Karl Mundt of South Dakota and Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. Some Democrats, like Nevada's Sen. Pat McCarran, were pleased to join in. The rest is disgraceful and tragic history.
Now, most lawmakers on Capitol Hill seem inclined to let it happen again. Of course the upcoming era won't be the same as the one that bears the name of McCarthy. History doesn't exactly repeat itself, but it can rhyme an awful lot.
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