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I think it is safe to say that the term McCarthyism has moved beyond reasonable discourse (if it ever resided there). I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that it has come to simply mean unfair accusations but when the term is being used by baseball managers talking about suspicion of steroid use then it has moved beyond historical meaning and become simply an insult to throw around.

Here is Dusty Baker’s brilliant assessment:

“It’s like McCarthyism or something. They’re looking to see who looks like a communist,”

Ironically, perhaps Baker is right and he just doesn’t know it. Perhaps like many of McCarthy’s targets these players are guilty and thus their loud protests. That’s the funny thing about McCarthy, despite his clumsy and strategically destructive tactics and judgement, quite a few people he accused of being communists were in fact communists or supporters to a degree where the subject was very much in doubt.

Baker makes no claim to intelligence on the subject, however, as he freely admits “he didn’t know enough to have an opinion on steroids in baseball or the league’s drug testing policy.” So its a dangerous witch hunt but I really don’t know enough about the subject to really judge. Yup, sounds like McCarthyism to me.