Witch Hunt

Once upon a time, there was an evil man named Joseph McCarthy. He was a senator from Wisconsin from 1947 to 1957. He made it his mission to rid our federal government of Communist sympathizers and spies. Even if those he suspected weren't actually Communists or spies, he made such a fuss about it that most of those whose names were called by his special committee gave up, disappeared, or found other work elsewhere. And when he felt that he had cleaned house sufficiently in our government, he went to work on the media and entertainment figures. Careers and lives were ruined. He was eventually disgraced by and censured by his own party and he slid back into a bitter spiral of alcoholism and denial. He was a Republican.
Before that, the term "witch hunt" was much more literal. In the late seventeenth century, people were actively looking for people who were practicing witchcraft, casting spells and consorting with the devil. Literally. For about eighteen months, the happy campers in colonial Massachusetts executed a dozen of their number for being "witches." These were mostly single women who failed to conform to a rather rigid sense of propriety. Some say it was bad bread. Others suggest that their behavior could have been post-traumatic stress after attacks by the natives. Whatever the case, they were different and were therefore eliminated.
It is historically how we deal with people who are different in our culture. The official platform of the Montana Republican Party says that homosexuality is illegal. Some scoff at the notion, since all such laws were struck down by Montana's own Supreme Court in 1997, but according to party officials up in Big Sky Country, The fact that the matter has never come up for discussion since is a pretty good indicator of where their collective head is. Stonings and lynchings are, for the time being, suspended however.
Then there's the case of Tea Party Celebutante and Senate Candidate Christine O'Donnell. Way back in 1999, she appeared on Bill Maher's old TV show, "Politically Incorrect" to discuss her own experiences "dabbling in witchcraft." And suddenly she's far too busy to appear on "Face The Nation" or "Fox News Sunday." Maybe she's holding out for the reality TV reboot of "Bewitched." No news on the ghost of McCarthy.