The mob even sacrifices people whose only crime is familial connection on its altar. The stepmother of the Atlanta police officer who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks, Melissa Rolfe, was fired from her job at a mortgage lender because some employees felt uncomfortable working with her.

Such tactics work best when they force people to confess to seek repentance for the crimes they may or may not have committed. McCarthy knew this, and so he always offered lenience to suspected communists who would “name names” and turn in other supposed conspirators. The woke inquisition uses the same tactic, forcing those caught in its maw to renounce prior statements they find objectionable. NFL quarterback Drew Brees surrendered to the roar while noted leftists such as J.K. Rowling and Noam Chomsky are being pilloried for their defense of free speech.

McCarthy was enabled by a frightened and compliant center-right. They knew he was wrong, but they also knew the anti-communist cause was right and were unsure how to embrace the just cause and excise the zealous overreach. It wasn’t until McCarthy attacked the U.S. Army that one man, attorney Joseph Welch, had the courage to speak up. “Have you no decency, sir?” he said as McCarthy tried to slander a colleague. The bubble burst, and people found the inquisitorial emperor had no clothes. The Senate censured him in 1954, and McCarthy died in 1957, a broken man.