Doug Henwood Talks

On Oct 17, 2006, at 5:50 PM, Carrol Cox wrote:

Jesse Lemisch wrote: >

Nobody disputes that McCarthyism took on the character of a mass movement.

Actually, I think it could be debated.

This is not a measurement of whether McCarthyism was a mass movement
or not, but it does suggest that his popularity was limited and short- lived http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthy:

McCarthy’s Support in Gallup Polls

 Date               Favorable  No Opinion  Unfavorable Net Favorable
 1951-August            15          63          22          -7
 1953 April             19          59          22          -3
 1953 June              35          35          30           5
 1953 August            34          24          42          -8
 1954-Jan               50          21          29          21
 1954-March             46          18          36          10
 1954-April             38          16          46          -8
 1954-May               35          16          49         -14
 1954-June              34          21          45         -11
 1954-August            36          13          51         -15
 1954-Nov               35          19          46         -11

Source: Nelson W. Polsby, “Towards an Explanation of McCarthyism,”
Political Studies, Vol. 8 (Oct 1962), p. 252

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