Forgotten history is like a rake neglected in the national backyard. Soon enough you’ll return to where you left it, and if you step on its teeth, it’ll swing up and hit you in the face.

That’s the gist of a Bill Moyers video essay that compares the political behavior of Florida Congressman Allen West to that of the shamed Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s. West recently revived McCarthy’s strategy of smearing Democratic Congress members by claiming some of them are undercover communists. (Above, McCarthy, at left, and a caricature of Rep. West.) –ARK

Bill Moyers: