Editing McCarthyism (section)

==Popular support==
[[File:Unholy three.png|thumb|Flier issued in May 1955 by the Keep America Committee urging readers to "fight communistic world government" by opposing public health programs]]

McCarthyism was supported by a variety of groups, including the [[American Legion]] and various other anti-communist organizations. One core element of support was a variety of militantly anti-communist women's groups such as the [[American Public Relations Forum]] and the [[Minute Women of the U.S.A.]] These organized tens of thousands of housewives into study groups, letter-writing networks, and patriotic clubs that coordinated efforts to identify and eradicate what they saw as subversion.<ref>Nickerson, Michelle M., "[http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/conservatism/nickerson.html Women, Domesticity, and Postwar Conservatism] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030310181508/http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/conservatism/nickerson.html |date=March 10, 2003 }}", ''OAH Magazine of History'' 17 (January 2003). {{ISSN|0882-228X}}.</ref>

Although right-wing radicals were the bedrock of support for McCarthyism, they were not alone. A broad "coalition of the aggrieved" found McCarthyism attractive, or at least politically useful. Common themes uniting the coalition were opposition to internationalism, particularly the [[United Nations]]; opposition to [[social welfare provision]]s, particularly the various programs established by the [[New Deal]]; and opposition to efforts to reduce inequalities in the [[social structure of the United States]].{{sfn|Rovere|1959|pp=21–22}}

One focus of popular McCarthyism concerned the provision of [[public health]] services, particularly [[vaccination]], [[mental health]] care services, and [[fluoridation]], all of which were denounced by some to be communist plots to poison or brainwash the American people. Such viewpoints led to collisions between McCarthyite radicals and supporters of public-health programs, most notably in the case of the [[Alaska Mental Health Enabling Act|Alaska Mental Health Bill]] controversy of 1956.<ref>Marmor, Judd, Viola W. Bernard, and Perry Ottenberg, "Psychodynamics of Group Opposition to Mental Health Programs", in {{cite book | author= Judd Marmor | title=Psychiatry in Transition | publisher=Transaction | year=1994 | edition=2nd | pages = 355–373 | isbn = 1560007362}}</ref>

[[William F. Buckley Jr.]], the founder of the influential conservative political magazine ''[[National Review]]'', wrote a defense of McCarthy, ''McCarthy and his Enemies'', in which he asserted that "McCarthyism ... is a movement around which men of good will and stern morality can close ranks."{{sfn|Buckley|1954|p=335}}

In addition, as Richard Rovere points out, many ordinary Americans became convinced that there must be "no smoke without fire" and lent their support to McCarthyism. The [[Gallup poll]] found that at his peak in January 1954, 50% of the American public supported McCarthy, while 29% had an unfavorable opinion. His support fell to 34% in June 1954.<ref>{{cite book|author=Robert Griffith|title=The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate|url=https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif|url-access=registration|year=1987|publisher=Univ of Massachusetts Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif/page/263 263]|isbn=0870235559}}</ref> Republicans tended to like what McCarthy was doing and Democrats did not, though McCarthy had significant support from traditional Democratic ethnic groups, especially Catholics, as well as many unskilled workers and small-business owners. (McCarthy himself was a Catholic.) He had very little support among union members and Jews.<ref>{{cite book|author=Arthur Herman|title=Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator|url=https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/160|year=2000|publisher=Simon and Schuster|pages=[https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/160 160–161]|isbn=978-0684836256}}</ref>