QOTD -- "Declaration Of Conscience" Anniversary

 

"Margaret Chase Smith said the 1950 Senate had become a 'rendezvous for vilification, for selfish political gain at the sacrifice of individual reputations and national unity.'

"She railed against the McCarthyite character assassination of the day, but also against the flight from substantive political dialogue.

"Our time, of course, resembles hers. Political language has also been debased and corrupted today. The Fox News propaganda of MAGA politicians is steeped in character assassination, baldfaced lies, petty insults and round-the-clock disinformation.

"This is the hollowing out of political language, which tracks the corruption of government and the disappearance of serious policy debate. These movements of thought are not just part of one politician’s campaign for power. They are in service of a ruling public philosophy, that treats the government as an instrument for class plunder and private self-enrichment, a get-even-filthier-rich-quick scheme for the president and his family and friends.

"But for the battered American public philosophy which insists that the government should be an instrument for the common good of all and the defense of our freedoms and civil rights, the state of politics in the country is a debacle and a serious threat to the survival of democratic institutions and the possibility of democratic progress. This is why people attending Town Hall meetings all over America are furious and inflamed about the grotesque condition of our government and our politics...." -- excerpt from Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin's June 1 "Statement on the 75th Anniversary of Senator Margaret Chase Smith's Declaration of Conscience."  (You can read Smith's declaration here (pdf).)  Our times do resemble those dark years, except then we still had a political system with institutional barriers and norms that no longer exist today to limit the power of a lawless, corrupt, fascist, wannabe autocrat.  Because today, you could take all the "consciences" from MAGA Republican politicians and they'd fit inside the navel of a flea with room to spare.