Page "belles_lettres" Paragraph 403

We must not forget, to be sure, that free discussion and debate have produced beneficial results.

In truth, we can say that this broke the power of Senator Joseph McCarthy, who was finally exposed in full light to the American people.

If he had been `` liquidated '' in some way, he would have become a martyr, a rallying point for people who shared his ideas.

Debate in the political arena can be productive of good.

But it is a clumsy and wasteful process: it can produce negative results but not much that is positive.

Debate rid us of McCarthy but did not give us much that is positive.

It did something to clear the ground, but it erected no striking new structure ; ;

it did not even provide the architect's plan for anything new.