related to P: on the history of "common sense" in which McCarthy appears

[Mark Kohut]

"he [Senator Joseph McCarthy] also unintentionally managed to unleash a wildly influential style of politics. In the words of its greatest chronicler, historian Richard Hofstadter, this style of politics is best described as an anti-intellectual “dynamic of dissent” against artists, actors, and academics that proved to be “powerful enough to set the tone of our political life” for years to come."

http://www.tnr.com/blog/damon-linker/against-common-sense?page=0,0