It was a courageous and principled Margaret Chase Smith, a Republican Senator from Maine, who first took to the Senate floor to condemn fellow Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy for his fear-creating rhetoric and actions. Her speech in June 1950, titled "A Declaration of Conscience", is widely regarded as beginning of the demise of McCarthy, finally ending with his censure by the Senate in 1954.
I have been thinking a great deal lately about the amazing similarities of the politics of fear currently being employed by the Bush Administration in the so-called "War on Terror", and those employed by Joseph McCarthy in the early 1950's during his Cold War search for Communists in America.
Follow me below the fold to learn more about her famous words and why they are so applicable to the situation we face with the current Administration today.
Read More