Flashback to the 1950s

Monday, June 27, 2011 | 2:01 a.m.

The red scare that followed World War II conjures up images of communist military parades with missiles in tow, foreign dictators angrily pounding their fists on lecterns, and Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy conducting on black-and-white TV witch hunts of Americans whose loyalty he questioned. Even fluoridated water was considered a communist plot. It was a time when certain politicians figured it was easy to prey on the fears of Americans as the country was locked in the Cold War.

One would have thought this sad chapter of America’s past would be confined to history books. But Mark Amodei, a Republican candidate in the upcoming special election for Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District, dredged up the red scare in a new campaign advertisement that accuses President Barack Obama of permitting a U.S. takeover by China. There’s even a scene in the ad where the Chinese military marches on Washington.

Fashioned as a Chinese news broadcast, an anchorwoman tells viewers: “Once upon a time, America became its own worst enemy. When all their borrowed money ran out, they kept spending. Out of control, their President Obama just kept raising the debt limit, and their independence became a new dependence. As their debt grew, our fortune grew. And that is how our great empire rose again.”

It’s an effective ad if one is trying to appeal to far right-wing Tea Party adherents, the ones who voted for gaffe-prone Sharron Angle in her failed attempt last year to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. But Amodei is going to have to take a higher road than relying on 1950s-style red-scare tactics if he wishes voters to take him seriously.

Most telling is what the ad doesn’t disclose. It was under Amodei’s fellow Republican, former President George W. Bush, that the nation’s debt began to rapidly accelerate. Yet Republicans in Congress were largely silent when the Bush administration added trillions of dollars to the debt.

In the ad, Amodei pledges not to raise the debt limit, but he ignores the genuine financial disaster that will strike the U.S. if it doesn’t raise its debt ceiling by August. The debt ceiling, the amount of money the government can borrow to meet obligations such as payment of military salaries and benefits for Social Security and Medicare recipients, has been raised or extended under both Republican and Democratic presidential administrations 78 times since 1960. If the debt ceiling isn’t raised again, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has warned that the country will default on its obligations for the first time.

If that happens, economists say global financial markets could be devastated. That would make matters even worse in Nevada, which is struggling with double-digit unemployment and a record number of home foreclosures.

Certainly as we’ve said before, spending cuts have to be made. But it’s foolish to take raising the debt limit off the table.

Here is hoping that Amodei and his competitors in the congressional race conduct a more intelligent conversation about the financial difficulties facing the nation and the need to create jobs. Simply leave the red-scare tactics in the history books where they belong.