Is this really the argument he wants to make?
The US domestic security chief on Wednesday compared current anti-Muslim sentiment to the anti-communist "Red Scare" of the 1940s and '50s, suggesting that divisive statements by Republican presidential candidates are to blame.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, who is black, noted that his grandfather was forced to testify in front of the House of Representatives in 1949.
"He had to, in the height of the Red Scare, to deny he was a member of the communist party, and went on to give an impassioned statement about how American negroes are patriotic," Johnson said at a conference in Washington about countering violent extremism.
Those who don't know history "are bound to repeat it," Johnson added.
True.
We let Communist infiltrators get away with it while they and their useful idiots and allies shouted "Red-baiting" and "Red Scare". The result was a Cold War, near nuclear annihilation, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the fall of Europe and China, the corruption and subversion of major American institutions.
So clearly we ought to learn from history.
And the first thing we ought to learn from history is that the people shouting "Alarmism" the loudest are looking to cover something up that conflicts with their ideological agenda.
"Efforts and dialogue that have the effect of vilifying American Muslims are counter to our homeland security interest," he said, without specifically naming any political candidates.
Meanwhile pandering to the Muslim Brotherhood really does wonders for our national security.