Where Is Today’s Margaret Chase Smith?
Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) left a shameful and indelible mark on American history with his lies, vitriol, baseless attacks on innocent Americans, and “Red Scare” tactics that cast a dark shadow over the 1950s.
But there’s another Senator from that era who deserves to be remembered for her stand against McCarthy: Senator Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME). She was the first Republican in Congress to take on her Republican colleague for his reign of terror.
Senator Smith is a role model that today’s Republican lawmakers would do well to remember.
McCarthy’s anti-communist frenzy began in 1950, culminating in 1953 and ’54 when, as chair of a powerful subcommittee, he held hearings that targeted innocent citizens accusing them, with little or no evidence, of being communists.
In February 1950, McCarthy claimed in a speech: “While I cannot take the time to name all the men in the State Department who have been named as members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring, I have here in my hand a list of 205.”
McCarthy never produced any names. There was no list.
A few months later, Smith took to the Senate floor with a speech as relevant and important today as it was in 1950.
With her famous “Declaration of Conscience” speech, Smith challenged McCarthy. She did so without even needing to mention McCarthy by name. Her intent was clear.
Smith described “a national feeling of fear and frustration” and said:
“I think that it is high time for the United States Senate and its Members to do some real soul searching and to weigh our consciences as to the manner in which we are performing our duty to the people of America and the manner in which we are using or abusing our individual powers and privileges.”
She continued:
“Those of us who shout the loudest about Americanism in making character assassinations are all too frequently those who, by our own words and acts, ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism –
The right to criticize.
The right to hold unpopular beliefs.
The right to protest.
The right of independent thought.
The exercise of these rights should not cost one single American citizen his reputation or his right to a livelihood nor should he be in danger of losing his reputation or livelihood merely because he happens to know someone who holds unpopular beliefs.
[…]
Today our country is being psychologically divided by the confusion and the suspicions that are bred in the United States Senate to spread like cancerous tentacles of ‘know nothing, suspect everything’ attitudes.
[…]
It is high time that we all stopped being tools and victims of totalitarian techniques – techniques that, if continued here unchecked, will surely end what we have come to cherish as the American way of life.”
Smith pointedly reminded her colleagues, “I think that it is high time that we remembered that we have sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution.”
Her “Declaration of Conscience” was endorsed by just six of her Senate Republican colleagues.
But Smith’s courage and arguments won out. McCarthy was censured by the Senate in 1954, by a vote of 67 to 22. Half of his Republican colleagues voted for censure, along with all the Democrats present. His reign of terror ended and he died in office in 1957.
Smith drew a line in the sand and dared her colleagues to do the same. She stood up for the rights of citizens and the values of our democracy that were being threatened by a rogue and dangerous Senator.
Today, we have a rogue and dangerous President.
We have a President bent on tearing the government and the country apart, endangering the health and well-being of citizens, and showing utter disdain and disregard for the rule of law and the Constitution.
Where is the courage of Republicans in Congress today? When will they defend our democracy and Constitution from the efforts of an apparent would-be dictator?
Which Republican is ready to stand up and make their own “Declaration of Conscience”?
Smith went on to remind us, “Moral cowardice that keeps us from speaking our minds is as dangerous to this country as irresponsible talk.”
Echoing the power of Smith’s message in 1950 – it is high time that Republican Members of Congress today remember that they have sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution.
Where is today’s Margaret Chase Smith?
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Fred’s Weekly Note appears on Thursdays in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s and other recent newsletters here. And, subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.
