I am one of the millions of Americans who start the day by reading Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American. Richardson, as most of you know, is a historian, and those letters frequently provides us with important historical context for the issues of the day, a way to make sense of the present by situating it in an evolving past.
On June 1st, she reminded us of a speech given on a long-ago June 1st (1950!) by Margaret Chase Smith, then a Republican Senator from Maine.
Many of us older folks have encountered that speech, which was Smith’s deservedly-famous description of the immense harms being done by Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy, whose rabid attacks on supposed “Communists” in the government–attacks usually untethered to any credible evidence–gave rise to the term McCarthyism. I’d forgotten how incredibly ever-green her words have been. Reading them again, I was reminded that America has always harbored conspiracy theorists, extremists and would-be autocrats whose definition of “Americanism” would have horrified the nation’s Founders.
Here is some of what Smith said in that speech to the Senate on June 1st, 1950.
I would like to speak briefly and simply about a serious national condition. It is a national feeling of fear and frustration that could result in national suicide and the end of everything that we Americans hold dear…. I speak as a Republican, I speak as a woman. I speak as a United States senator. I speak as an American.
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. Americans have the right to criticize, to hold unpopular beliefs, to protest, and to think for themselves. But attacks that cost people their reputations and jobs are stifling these basic American principles. Freedom of speech is not what it used to be in America. It has been so abused by some that it is not exercised by others…
I do not want to see the Republican party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny—Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear.”
I doubt if the Republican party could do so, because I do not believe the American people will uphold any political party that puts political exploitation above national interest. Surely we Republicans are not that desperate for victory.
I do not want to see the Republican party win that way. While it might be a fleeting victory for the Republican party, it would be a more lasting defeat for the American people. Surely it would ultimately be suicide for the Republican party and the two-party system that has protected our American liberties from the dictatorship of a one-party system.
As an American, I condemn a Republican Fascist just as much as I condemn a Democrat Communist. They are equally dangerous to you and me and to our country. As an American, I want to see our nation recapture the strength and unity it once had when we fought the enemy instead of ourselves.
Richardson tells us that Smith then presented a “Declaration of Conscience”–a list of five principles she hoped her party would adopt–and ended her speech by warning that “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.”
So much of that speech could have been delivered in the U.S. Senate today, if today there were any Republicans in that body as honest–and honorable–as Margaret Chase Smith.
The phrase from Smith’s speech that is most frequently quoted today is her assertion that “I do not want to see the Republican party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny—Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear.” Its application to MAGA Republicanism is painfully obvious. Reams of scholarly research tell us that the appeal of Trump and MAGA is based upon fear–especially an overwhelming fear of loss of status/social dominance held by a subset of straight White Christian men. Research also tells us that the MAGA base is predominantly white, male and non-college educated, and that it is characterized by “racial grievance”–aka ignorance, bigotry and smear…
Not much has changed since 1950. A victory for today’s GOP in November would be–in Chase’s words–a lasting defeat for the American people.
It’s hard to believe that was in the 50s…I wonder what she’d say today about Trump. I noticed Trump’s Crime Family has pivoted back to immigration enforcement and kicked up fear about “criminals being dumped into the US.” All false rhetoric that really kicks up that “fear of others.”
This little tidbit jumped off the page at me: “Surely we Republicans are not that desperate for victory.”
My former Republican Tea Party friend from Indiana told me post-Obama, “Whatever it takes to win!”
And yes, they lied, cheated, and smeared others. The term the Tea Party used to use against Democrats was “baby killer.” Democrats must gather around an altar to watch babies sacrificed to Moloch. Oh, wait, that’s the Republicans again. Or more correctly, the Republicans, plus the Clintons.
Trump is the master of smear. Quite frankly, it’s all he’s got. When the shit hits the fan later this summer, who will Trump blame it on? And why is our military building a six-story underground bunker for the ballroom?
p.s. The reason Trump gave for dismissing Bondi was, “She didn’t release the Epstein Files, and wouldn’t pursue personal vendettas for Trump.” If Todd Blanche passes Senate confirmation, we’ll know just how stinking corrupt even the DoJ has become.
something to think about
The Guardian,6/7/26
Nick Robbins-Early
“A driver of political violence. the breakneck AI boom is fueling anti-tech
extremism.”
Trump could teach McCarthy a few things! McCarthy and Hitler have taught Trump a few things.
Heather rocks!
Lincoln could teach them all a few things!
I’m also a fan of HCR. When I read this post I couldn’t help but wonder where we would be if Ike had selected Senator Chase Smith, instead of House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) star, Nixon, to be his VEEP.
One day I was walking on the Circle at lunchtime when I was approached by a young man collecting signatures to put the Communist Party on the ballot in Indiana. I no sooner signed it when I felt a whack on my back. I turned to see a little white haired woman holding an umbrella. She was very upset that I was supporting a “damned Commie.” Sadly, I had to get back to work, so I didn’t have time to explain the marketplace of ideas. I just asked her if she thought her party would lose to the Communist party?
VOTE!!!!
Interesting and right on point. I just finished reading John Steinbeck’s “Travels with Charley in Search of American,” published in 1962, and the book made me aware that no matter how much we think things have changed–it’s disturbing how much they remain the same.
Steinbeck finishes his interesting journey this way: “I do know this–the big and mysterious America is bigger than I thought. And more mysterious.”
It’s a terrific book.
Perhaps part of what is holding Republican Congress people from taking any action to stop the grift is because many of them are actively involved in the grift themselves. Stock trading, anyone? My guess is that the handlers have the receipts and are more than willing to spread the word, maybe even make up the word knowing that their cult will believe anything they are told.
IMO, many of the more egregious grifters have looked around to see what those with millions and billions have gained with impunity and asked why they can’t do the same. Thomas comes to mind. I am sure there are lots of others in Congress, in both parties, who would be liable for criminal charges if the truth were told.
Others are reflecting the cultural values that they have been fed for their entire lives of the sheltered privilege they were taught was their entitlement. Alito, Roberts and Kavanaugh come to mind, along with those like Banks and Tuberville and Young.
Until we get money out of the system with enforceable ethics mechanisms, nothing will change. Sociopaths have no compassion or empathy, just lust for power by any means necessary because they do not see any consequence until there is.
RESIST.