Why was senator McCarthy able to generate so much attention with his accusations?

Answer 1

We can now observe the McCarthy witch hunt with the perfect clarity of hindsight, however, it was not that simple at the time. It was true that the USSR was the enemy of the US and had active agents within the US, although as it turns out, none of the people targeted by McCarthy or his allies in the House Un-American Activities Committee were actually Soviet agents. The conflict between capitalist and communist economic systems did exist, it was not imaginary, but the strategy of responding to this threat was frequently wrong. McCarthy did not consider his statements to be unbelievable and neither did large numbers of Americans who supported him, including Richard Nixon, one of the early crusaders against communist infiltration, who later was elected to two terms as President, although he also resigned in his second term. McCarthyism tapped in to a certain element of paranoia in the American public. There are today still people who claim that Barack Obama does not legally qualify to be President, which is just the latest version of the same paranoia.

Answer 2

Because he used fear tactics to propel himself forward in american influence, and gain more support for his accusations.