Joseph McCarthy

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About Joseph McCarthy: his political views and time in Senate
Joseph McCarthy was born in Wisconsin during 1908. Being a restless student, McCarthy abandoned high school at the age of 16 to begin his own poultry farm on a piece of land he purchased from a friend. After a catastrophic winter had killed all his poultry animals, he returned to high school during 1929 as a determined and focused student who wanted to graduate with his class (Garber and Walkowitz 45). McCarthy enrolled in Marquette University in 1930 and graduated with a law degree in 1953. This opened a way for him to return home to begin practicing his profession and start a career in politics.
He lost his first campaign vying for the position of the district attorney as the Democratic nominee. Consequently, McCarthy made his decision to seek a nonpartisan position. He, therefore, vied for a circuit judgeship; thus challenging an opponent who scorned him as an unelectable rookie (Heale, 538). As a result, McCarthy campaigned with aggressiveness and vengeance and his effort successfully worked and in 1937 he was elected therefore becoming the youngest judge (twenty-nine-year old) in Wisconsin history.
Five years later, although his service as a judge barred him from military service, he joined the Marines having hopes that his combat experience would develop his political stature. Shea and Sproveri opine that serving the Marines, McCarthy was an intelligence officer working in the Pacific (417). He was in charge of military debriefing aimed to investigate bombing raids and other military actions in Japan. While, he returned home, he embarked on campaigns depicting himself as a great veteran who survived dangerous military missions over Japanese territory. He obtained the Distinguished Flying Cross as an award to honor his courage and dedication in military efforts.
McCarthy started campaigning for senatorial position and capitalized on his war record as a better candidate than other opponents (Berinsky and Lenz 183). His tactics worked successfully, and he defeated senator Robert La Follete in the Republican senatorial primaries in 1946. McCarthy also managed to defeat Howard McMurray (his Democratic opponent) since he publicly portrayed McMurray as a desperate person for election who would accept communist support (Garber and Walkowitz 57). Such baseless allegation worked for McCarthy, and consequently he defeated McMurray in the 1947 senatorial election; thus becoming a junior U.S. senator from Wisconsin. With time, McCarthy feared that he could not be re-elected without having major issues to develop his political standing. As a result...