Thank you very much for writing this. THere is of course a much stronger link between the Trump family and Jospeh McCarthy through the lawyer Roy Cohn. He was McCarthy's top aid and then became Trump's lawyer and second father in many ways. McCarthyism also lurched Armerica to the right by intimidating Liberals from speaking up. Even John F. Kennedy didn't want to publicly criticize him.

I will note that many Republicans believe that the "Liberal" court of the the 1945 -1970s effectively froze them out of the decision making process by expanding the separation of church and state, rights for criminal defendents, and weakening local control. I think McConnell is desperately trying to have a court which will return us to the nineteenth century. He and Trump may only succeed in breaking the country instead.