Tom, the last time this issue was important to anyone but you, we were both in elementary school. There were no Commies in my school's PTA, in spite of what my parents were told... none under the beds, either. Still aren't.

In 1973, a co-worker at the first professional job I ever had told me in all sincerity that the Soviet Army would invade America in our lifetime. I couldn't help myself -- I laughed in his face. I can follow a line of conspiracist "thinking" only so far, until the sheer ridiculousness of it overwhelms my ability to listen with a straight face. (I apologized afterward, by the way...)

To quote you in a CE thread -- a post I deliberately didn't answer:

Romantic fog of youth, or did he have policies you liked? (n/t)

I ask you the same question, about Joe McCarthy.