Six days a week, every week, from 1936 to 1962, Eleanor Roosevelt had a column called My Day published by United Feature Syndicate in New York. Here is a snippet from her April 19, 1952 column, during the height of the McCarthy craze.
NEW YORK, APRIL 19- I wonder if many of my readers noticed that an organization that seems to stem from the old American Firster group was formed the other day to prove that Dwight D. Eisenhower is closely associated with Communists. This type of thing is becoming so ludicrous that each time it happens we should point it out and say to ourselves: “How stupid can we be? Is hysterical fear turning us all into moron?”
On May 3rd, she wrote a lengthier column about how a school organization in Englewood, New Jersey had been intimidated into rescinding an invitation to Mary McLeod Bethune to speak with them because of her alleged ties to communists.
Back then, these groups were a fringe. After all, the Republican Party went on to nominate Eisenhower as their nominee in 1952, and then again in 1956.
Today, these people are a dominant force in the GOP.
You can peruse Eleanor’s columns here.