Boston lawyer Joseph Welch speaking to Senator Joseph McCarthy on June 9, 1954: “Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness…. You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?  Have you left no sense of decency?”

It is my hope, my prayer, that Limbaugh, O’Reilly and their ilk, will have such a moment of reckoning. Perhaps not so much for them, as for their followers. That they will recognize the cruelty and recklessness of their rhetoric. That, in a chilling moment of clarity, their followers will turn their backs on those talk show hosts who spew hatred, fear, ridicule and anger – so much anger.

Senator McCarthy used the Soviet-American Cold War to launch a witch hunt for ‘godless Communists’ in the federal government. He used public hearings and the power of television to demonize, ridicule and ruin average, blameless Americans with little or no evidence, merely to feed his political ambition.

Today’s arch conservative talk show hosts use the post-9/11 Cold War to launch their own crusade against - the silent majority of Americans. They claim the moral high ground while demonizing and ridiculing Independents, Democrats, liberals, moderates, Republicans, civil libertarians, a free media, and anyone who disagrees with them. These pretenders who have never worn a uniform viciously attack Republican and Democratic veterans who continue to serve their country in public office.

These are not defenders of the faith, but merely snake oil salesmen lining their own pockets with the money of angry, scared followers. They feel no remorse in taking their money. They believe in that old adage, ‘never give a sucker an even break.’

“Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?” is often misquoted as ‘have you no sense of shame?’ This fits here as well, perhaps, even better. Many of these glib peddlers of hate and anger have been exposed for their double standards – drug addiction and prescription fraud, sexual harassment – yet they have no shame. They’re not embarrassed nor humiliated, not disgraced nor discredited.

How sad that their followers do not feel any shame for them. They are a mob that follows the bully until he is shown to be the coward, as bullies always are.

Following that exchange with Mr. Welch on June 9, 1954, Senator McCarthy was eventually rebuked by his colleagues, shunned by his party, and ignored by the public and the press. Three years later he died at the age of 48, a broken man.

McCarthy’s cruel and reckless rhetoric was finally silenced simply because no one would listen. But his reign of terror remains an important and relevant history lesson, a warning to those now – if only they would listen.