get his name known. He was good at talking to the press and knew what they wanted, and he gave it to them. The Republican party also encouraged McCarthy as they could use him and his "list" as a weapon against the Liberals and Democrats. It was also well known that politicians who have served on some of the anti-Communist committees had boosted their political careers significantly. So McCarthy would target people and if it did not work out he would just pick another person. The one thing that seemed to make McCarthy perfect for this job is that he seemed to have no conscience. It did not seem to matter to him who he targeted, what he said about them, truthful or not, or what happened to them as a result of his accusations. It is hard to tell who was really behind McCarthy. It appears middle and lower class Americans may have been the only group behind him. That was probably because of the perceived threat of communism and communist traders in our society. Don't forget we already found two spies giving nuclear secrets to Russians. It may have also been because McCarthy was targeting the wealthy and powerful in this country. The middle and lower class Americans did not necessarily trust or like these people anyway. If it weren't for the lower and middle class voters along with the media, McCarthyism may have never taken off. It seems that most people in the government, major corporations, the media, and major universities did not like McCarthy. However in the public eye they went along with him. No one spoke out against him in fear of being put on his list of people to be investigated. Many of the major corporations would even fire people from their organizations and companies, who were identified as a communist. Those who took their 5th amendment rights, were considered to be unfriendly to the committee, and it would probably mean that you would loose your job. Corporations and organizations felt it was good p...
