Senator Joseph McCarthy used his power to persuade citizens and political officials to ban communism and invade the personal lifestyles of those accused of being communists. Therefore, causing more harm than good and making America a place that didn't live up to it's promises of being a "free" country.
One of the things that made McCarthy so powerful, was the fear that he caused by randomly accusing government officials and your everyday person. A single sentence of accusation could ruin someone's life. Some people were blacklisted due to them being accused of communist associations. Also, many employees had to take oaths to the government to keep their jobs (McCarthy, Joseph).
McCarthy portrayed communism as the supreme evil and accusations of being disloyal made him incredibly effective. "The government is full of communist. We can hammer away at them." This is a quote from McCarthy himself trying to figure out a platform to run on for election for senator. This quote shows how his search for communism wasn't a long thought out process; it was just a random, caught in the moment decision (Herman, Arthur). .
During one of the Senate Army-McCarthy hearings Joseph Welch and Senator McCarthy got into a heated argument over a man named Fred Fisher, who Welch had asked not to be mentioned that night but McCarthy had anyways. (Oshinsky, David M.).
This is an excerpt of what Welch said to McCarthy that night on behalf of Fisher, which could be to said to have later affected the way Americans felt towards him in general. "And I said "Fred I just don't think I"m going to ask you to work on the case. If I do, one of these days that will come out, and go over national television and it will hurt like the dickens." And so, Senator, I asked him to go back to Boston. Little did I dream you could be so reckless and so cruel as to do an injury to that lad it is, I regret to say, equally true that I fear he shall always bear a scar needlessly inflicted by you.