Political climate of the 1950s

U.S. HISTORY -- 1950's

THE POLITICAL CLIMATE OF AMERICA

IN THE 1950'S

On February 9, 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin "told an audience in West Virginia that he possessed a list of 250 known Communists in the U.S. State Department," a claim that went unsubstantiated until the summer of 1951 when McCarthy managed to gain a wide following from politicians, civil servants, journalists and intellectuals who were all convinced that McCarthy's list of known Communists was accurate. His main target was Secretary of State Dean Acheson and for millions of Americans, this was "a symptom of the times that McCarthy was able to persuade otherwise rational Americans that Acheson was a traitor to his country" (Lubell, 1956, 356). However, by 1954, McCarthy was deemed as a fraud and liar and was greatly ostracized by American society. The overall impact of his "witch hunt" for Communists in the American government was that the American public became extremely skeptical of politicians and their rhetoric and that hard evidence was mandatory in order to place so-called subversives on public display.

McCarthy's quest for Communists in the American political system occurred during the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower who interpreted his election as "a mandate for change," meaning that he wished for his administration to be friendly to business while restricting certain activities of the federal government. As President, Eisenhower "advertised his program as "Dynamic Conservatism," also known as "modern Republicanism" which entailed cutting the federal budget, increased support for big business by the federal government and the return of specific federal functions back to state and local governments. Basically, Eisenhower made it clear that "I will be a conservative when it comes to money and a liberal when it comes to human beings" (Schultz, 1999, Internet).

Yet in order to truly achieve this rather lofty political goal, Eisenhower "extolled the virtues of a "middle way" via the process known as political consensus, being "a method where the ruling party uses a system of asking various sides in an argument to put forward their own ideas and then try to find a consensus or an agreement which all parties can agree with." In essence, this approach "is a hallmark of a mature nation's ability to make good laws with agreement from all sides of the political spectrum" ("Politics of Consensus," 2006, Internet).

During the Eisenhower Administration, America underwent a number of radical changes in its political and social arenas, the most important being the rapid rise in consumerism which before Eisenhower was limited to the wealthy and those in the upper classes. When World War II ended, American factories began to manufacture a huge range of goods which were then purchased by average Americans for use in their homes and businesses. This immense increase quickly led to the creation of millions of jobs which allowed consumerism to climb to new heights, thus creating an economic boom for all Americans.

In the late 1950's, the Civil Rights Movement became a powerful American entity, mostly due to the influence of the Brown v. The Board of Education decision by the Supreme Court which made school segregation illegal. After the passage of a bill by Congress which enforced the 14th and 15th amendments of the U.S. Constitution, American Negroes "launched an attack against segregation in December of 1955 after Rosa Parks was ordered to give her bus seat to a white man. When she refused, she was arrested" (Lubell, 1956, 315). This event effectively began the Civil Rights Movement which continues to this very day.