McCarthy’s distinctiveness was tactical, not strategic

Evidence

Although McCarthy’s name came to symbolize the period, his only originality lay in using this strategy in a particularly unscrupulous and effective way, and in exploiting it to the hilt to further his own political career. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1670

Categorization

• CANDY: A neat one-liner that reframes McCarthy from villain-inventor to mere exploiter of an existing witch-hunt strategy - good cocktail-party material.
• XREF: connects to: New Criticism rose and fell in lockstep with McCarthyism — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures, 86; McCarthyism and Islamophobia were systematic products of state power, not outsized individuals; New McCarthyites are integrated into the foreign policy and security establishment, not aberrations — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 571

Broader Connections

• McCarthyism and Islamophobia were systematic products of state power, not outsized individuals #complicates (0.80)
• New Criticism rose and fell in lockstep with McCarthyism #complicates (0.75) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 86
• New McCarthyites are integrated into the foreign policy and security establishment, not aberrations #expands (0.75) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 571