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Nasty-ism
It’s a thing. And it’s a harbinger of things to come.
Pause a while on the phenomenon of ‘bad girl’ Marjorie Taylor Greene and focus on “Nasty-ism,” a less obvious form of political stereotyping, bullying and repression.
‘Nasty-ism’ is a compound made-up word: a perversion of ‘nastiness,’ which sounds like Nazism. Before Marjorie Taylor Greene was in diapers, “nasty-ism,” as political repression was afoot.
Does the name Senator Joseph McCarthy ring a bell?
Recall, June 9, 1954, day 30 of the Army-McCarthy Hearings (1):
Joseph Welch, chief counsel for the US Army:
(Interrupting McCarthy) Senator, may we not drop this? We know he (Fred Fisher) belonged to the Lawyers Guild… let us not assassinate this lad further. Senator, you’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?
Words aside, one heard ‘nasty-ism’ evolve later during a news conference following the public release of the Mueller Investigation in 2017. Asked if “whether evidence in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation could support prosecution of the president for obstruction of justice.” Barr famously said, upon the release of his letter to Congress, that he found “no evidence of obstruction of justice by the Office of the President.” (2)
