[Agema]

The US is supposed to be a free democracy: that means people should have freedom of views, and the free speech to express those views.

That Communists were trying to infiltrate the USA is irrelevant. The fact is that many of McCarthy's victims had done nothing wrong, he had no adequate evidence they'd done anything wrong, yet he ruined their lives, many even had to leave the USA. He did so because they had merely the barest of links to left-wing thought. He was a vicious bully; he was thought police; he was a force of oppression. That's why he is a villain, and even he caught as much as a whole spy ring he'd still be a villain.