The McCarthy era was really about a minority who were vocal about their beliefs which tended towards socialist practice. The economy was growing rapidly after the war and most people were busy with their own affairs, including mainstream Jewish people. Immigrants would sink or swim, as they had for the last century. The Okies were the coming entrepreneurs in California. Homosexuals were in the closet, and for the most part were unaffected. As rebels are, everywhere, the vocal minority was subjected to repression. Like the general majority everywhere, we distanced ourselves, perhaps listening to Seegar songs when we felt a little rebellious, but remained unaffected. Although McCarthy seemed a little extreme, we went along with it. After all, we had been conditioned for McCarthy's rise by journalists like Walter Winchell, whose radio broadcasts we never missed, and by stories of the terrible repressions of the Soviet era.