Well, I think "McCarthyism" as pejorative is pretty played out. The old drunk's been dead a long time, and I'm sure we can find another term. In the radio interviews I've been doing lately, I've been using "antidemocratic bullying" -- not as pithy as McCarthyism, but accurate, and in the follow-up I break it down for the listeners who, in many cases, have no idea what freedom means.
I'm sad to see the Chicks back down, but not surprised. Country music culture is quite jingoistic and, at times, simply insane. Last night, after a couple glasses of a fine Australian Cab, I flipped across MTV's country music channel and saw what seemed like a redneck Nuremberg rally. Don't know who the band was -- I didn't stick with it to the end -- but they were playing to a bunch of servicemen in an airplane hangar. The song was a typical "patriotic" ditty, and the band was surrounded by a shitload of flags, and video screens showing more flags with eagles, F-14s whizzing about, etc., and this sent the servicemen into a simian frenzy. I took a minute or two of it before I found solace at VH1 Classic, where a Clash video was playing. Ah, Joe Strummer, how you are missed.
DP