The “New American Right”

For a while it seemed as if there were no more challenging problem in our domestic life than McCarthyism. To be sure, the man and the ism were shorthand for a cluster of unpleasant—not to say symptomatic—developments. How did the disease begin? Why did it reach epidemic proportions? Could one logically account for the real, if limited, success of demagogues, the oppressive atmosphere they helped create, and the consequent erosion of our liberties?

It can hardly be claimed that the ...