Hello, and welcome to episode 30 of The Spectrum. This was recorded on September 28, 2025. Today we’re going to be looking at the modern right-wing political movement and comparing it to the McCarthy era of the 1950’s. Spoiler alert: they are doing it again.

Joseph McCarthy was a Republican US Senator from Wisconsin. He was in the Senate from 1947 through 1957. His name became the banner for a movement of political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals. That other name for it was The Second Red scare.

The First Red Scare started in 1947 when President Truman signed an executive order to screen federal employees for possible associations with organizations classified as “totalitarian, fascist, communist or subversive” that advocated altering the form of the US government by unconstitutional means.

The fear of Communism making inroads in America was probably the biggest fear of those in power after World War II. The Soviet Union was extending it’s reach over eastern Europe. America was headed toward the Korean War. Fear of communism was commonplace and once the Soviet Union did a test detonation of a nuclear weapon, this fear was even greater.

In February 1950 McCarthy gave a speech to a Republican Women’s group in Wheeling, West Virginia. He claimed to have a list of names of state department employees who were members of the US Communist Party and that they were part of a spy ring. This kicked off the Second Red Scare.

It also kicked of a scare of another color, the “Lavender Scare”. This was a panic about gay people in the federal government and led to the mass dismissal of people suspected of being gay. In the minds of the people perpetrating this, to be gay was to be a communist sympathizer. And to be gay was to be a deviant.

Thousands of people were accused, many of them on flimsy or non-existent evidence. Hundreds of people were imprisoned. Thousands lost their jobs. Some took their own lives.

The Lavender Scare institutionalized persecution of gay people. This continues to this day in many parts of our country but with the rising political power of the gay community an easier target was needed: transgender people.

The 2024 campaign saw transgender people being targeted in political ads by Republicans. Once Trump was sworn in a rash of executive orders were signed targeting transgender people. A wave of anti-transgender laws has swept Republican controlled states.

What crime did transgender people commit?

Existing and then having the temerity to be visible in society.

Transgender people have become more visible in the 21st Century and their very existence and their demand to be treated as human beings has sent right-wing organizations into apoplectic frenzy.

Unsurprisingly, here in 2025, political ads for statewide races in Virginia, have continued the trend with Republican candidates misrepresenting transgender people. The clear intent is to portray transgender people and anyone advocating on their behalf as sick, disgusting people.. Transgender people are all but accused of being sexual predators. Because the Republican gubernatorial candidate is behind in the polls, something needed to be done to drum up fear and transgender people remain the target of choice when immigrants are not an option.

With the murder of Charlie Kirk, the attacks on transgender people have ramped up even more. The Heritage Foundation has recently called for the FBI to label groups that support transgender rights as domestic violent extremists. They want a new designation for transgender ideology-inspired violent extremism. The Heritage Foundation, the organization responsible for Project 2025, seems to me like it could be headed for its own hate group designation. They have managed to stay just outside that designation but acts like this seem like they could cross that line, at least to me.

The FBI has only responded with a “no comment” when asked if they were considering this request. That is not a denial so we don’t know what is going to happen.

As anyone who watched episodes 27 through 29 of the podcast learned, the only thing that transgender people care about is is living their lives with their bodies and minds in harmony. The only ideology is the same one that everyone should have: treat people with respect, compassion and dignity. That is just basic human decency. It’s the ideology that should be central to every American.

I don’t know of a single organization advocating for transgender rights that supports or condones violence. The only radical ideology that exists is on the part of these right-wing groups that want to exclude people from society.

Regressive organizations demonize people like it was 1950 all over again. Seventy years later, we are still trying to fix the damage that McCarthy and his cronies created in their quest to purge our society of gay people. Now, we must also to work to repair the damage that Donald Trump and the Regressive Party are doing to the lives of transgender people.

They are using the same script. The accuse transgender people of being violent extremists and sexual perversion in the same way that gay people were accused of being communists and deviants. The only difference this time is the Supreme Court. The Court put an end to much of the McCarthy era legislation. Today, when faced with similar situations the Supreme Court has been far less friendly to individual rights are far more friendly toward executive power and actual extremist groups.

I get that many of the people watching or listening to this podcast may think, “This doesn’t affect me. Why should I care?”

There are a bunch of reasons. First is that it affects people you know. The odds are good that you know a transgender person though you may not know it. The consequences of this Transgender Scare can ruin their lives. And, it’s being done simply because they exist and make convenient targets for power hungry people.

I’m not saying every transgender person is a saint. People are people. But, there is no organized, well-funded movement to subvert society or commit violent acts like the Heritage Foundation claims. The foundation wants political power and they want to eliminate organizations that disagree with their world view. They are happy to ruin people’s live to get that power. People like that should never be given access to power. Transgender people are just people who want to be a part of society. That is the right of every person.

The second reason is that if they succeed with dehumanizing transgender people then we could be on the road to repeating some horrible crimes we’ve seen in the past where people are picked up off the street and not given access to due process. We already are on that road with immigrants. We need to stop before America stops being the Land of the Free and becomes the Land of the Nazi. The actions our government are taking are not legal and they are not ethical. If they will do it to immigrants they will do it to others, even American citizens.

The final reason is that it is simple human decency. Transgender people have done nothing wrong. If we don’t want to radicalize a generation of people then we need to stop demonizing them. If people are pushed to the point where they have nothing to lose then there will be violence but that violence does not exist now and there is no reason it needs to. Right now the vast majority of political violence in America is coming from right-wing extremists. Our rather right-wing government keeps trying to label violent perpetrators as left-wing extremists. They also want to label anyone that supports a progressive world view as an extremist, but we are not extremists. It is not an extremist view to want to be accepted as a part of society. It is not an extremist view that the Constitution should apply to everyone. The only extremist view is in labeling people as “other” and less than human. What they are doing is straight out of the McCarthy and Nazi playbooks. We need them to stop.

If the Heritage Foundation succeeds in making our society even more regressive then it is only a matter of time until they need a new target. Groups like this can’t exist without an enemy. They thrive on creating an enemy. If the succeed with one enemy they will need another and the time it might be you or someone you care about, someone who has done nothing wrong other than to exist and become a convenient target.

The best way to do this is at the voting booth. Here in Virginia we are voting for our statewide offices as well as the House of Delegates in 2025. The national midterm elections are just over a year away. Right-wing politicians are attempting to redraw political districts in an effort to ensure they remain in power. It will take an overwhelming act of dissent to get rid of them and it may be our only opportunity.

I’m not here to tell you who to vote for. It’s your responsibility as a citizen to figure that out for yourself. But, I do hope that this inspires you to vote for candidates that support freedom and vote against candidates that actually want to restrict the rights of American citizens. Send a message to politicians who target innocent groups that their kind of politics is no longer welcome. Many of the politicians in the Republican Party are not actually extremists but they are cowards. They are more concerned with staying in power than in upholding the constitutional rights of Americans. If they see the writing on the wall they will stop supporting this evil. And, it is evil. I know of no other word to describe the act of dehumanizing people to gain power. If you have been supporting them despite these actions because you think their other positions are more important then I hope you will reconsider. People like this don’t stop. They will continue until no dissent remains.

If you have a story about LGBT+ life you would like to share, contact me at spectrumpodcasthost@gmail.com. If you are watching on YouTube and want to help this podcast reach wider audience, please like the video and subscribe to the channel. If you are listening on an audio podcast, please leave a review through your podcatcher if you can. If you are reading the transcripts on the spectrumpodcast.org website, liking he posts will also help them be more visible to search engines.

I have never been more concerned about our country. I thought we had learned the lessons of the evils of our past but it’s clear that we haven’t. We need to send a very clear message at the polls that we will not let our society become dominated by an authoritarian regime concerned only with its own power and greed.

Until next time, take care and stay safe.