Who Is Loyal To America Summary

In the book Voices of Freedom by Eric Foner, an essay written by Henry Steele Commager argued that the anticommunist movement was the new meaning of loyalty. In the article “Who is Loyal to America” by Henry Steele, he conveyed how the Lavender Scare was a problematic issue to the government since the Lavender Scare was aimed at homosexuals working for the government. Discriminating the homosexuals was very similar to the civil rights reforms because the situation was very similar to the Red Scare at the time. Thus caused the change through feminist movement which stressed equality for everyone. This all intertwines with polices due to the fear of communism. Being “different” from the others raised a great suspicion of being a part of being

According to Henry Steele, in his essay “Who is Loyal to America”, he states that “What is the new loyalty? It is, above all, conformity” (Foner. 240) This means that if you are not devoted or in a high social standing, then you could be accused of being part of the communist movement. This was a problematic because those who were loyal were placed on top of back burners “who regard public office as a source of private gain. Those who would exalt the military over the civil” (Foner. 242) Henry was very clear about this because those who changed the definition of loyalty was the ones who were doing the opposite. Another problem that Henry stated was “the concept of loyalty as a conformity is a false one. It is narrow and restrictive, denies freedom of thought and of conscience, and is irremediably stained by private and selfish considerations” (Foner, 240). This is the reason why he was arguing because the government are trying to force people to change into a “true” American without any questions. This ideology broke basically all the Amendments that are bound to citizens. Understanding the new “loyalty” is very important because there are many issues that happened such as the Lavender Scare and the Red