You may have noticed a theme to yesterday's blog series of posts. Time and again, over a 24-hour period, Democrats have accused the Republican Party of extremism, terrorism, and plotting against the best interests of the United States. Such charges call into question the patriotism of American citizens who are associated with the GOP, the Tea Party, and certain other organizations -- and raise the quite serious issue of whether or not these are subversive, unAmerican organizations and individuals, and whether other Americans -- including elected officials -- are fellow travelers who are actively cooperating with those who the Democrats charge are trying to harm America.

Historically, Congress has taken an active role in rooting out such plots and plotters, and has worked diligently to expose the individuals and organizations involved in efforts to harm America. If Democrats truly believe this, it is time for the revival of the tools historically used to implement this great patriotic work -- the House UnAmerican Activities Committee and the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

Now bringing back HUAC may be difficult -- after all, it was abolished in 1975 and it would be difficult for Democrats to revive in a GOP-controlled House of Representatives for purposes of permitting the minority party to investigate the activities of the majority party, its organized allies and the constituencies that brought the majority to power. But the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations still exists today in the Democrat-controlled Senate -- though it has focused more on the financial sector in recent years rather than rooting out dangerous political actors as it did in the days of Joe McCarthy. Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats should therefore return its focus to the glory days of the Red Scare and the blacklist -- rooting out dangerous political dissenters whose ideology and activities are viewed as a threat to America's best interests.

Jus timagine the hearings. We would see Sarah Palin being grilled by the likes of Carl Levin, Claire McCaskill, Mary Landrieu and the rest of the subcommittee's Democrat members over her use of targets in a graphic on her website -- and who knows, maybe they can subpoena her medical records and those of her daughter to finally determine whose child Trig really is. Various Tea Party leaders could be questioned regarding their activities. Imagine the efforts of the committee to determine whether or not Fox News constituted a threat to the security of the United States. Perhaps the Democrats could even make a play to force Clarence Thomas off the Supreme Court by branding his wife's activities a threat to America and suggesting that he is a fellow traveler in her unAmerican activities. The informal blacklist of Hollywood conservatives could be made official, complete with the imprimatur of the oldest subcommittee in the US Senate. And folks like me, average Americans who dare to publicly dissent from Obama Administration policies could be summoned to Washington and, under oath, be forced to answer the question "Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Tea Party or any Tea Party front organization?"

And to those who find my proposal here a bit absurd, I ask the following question -- is this satirical post any more absurd than the rhetoric daily lobbed at conservatives by the Democrats in which they accuse their fellow citizens with different policy outlooks of being terrorists who are seeking to destroy our nation for political advantage? And if you truly believe in the new civility that liberals demanded become the new norm in the wake of the shooting of Gabby Giffords and others by a madman in Tucson, why are you not flinging at the Democrats making such outrageous claims the devastating question directed at Senator McCarthy when he chaired the Subcommittee on Investigations?