Once again, a solitary Republican woman has boldly spoken out against the un-American madness that has consumed her party and threatened the nation. Just as Senator Margaret Chase Smith stood alone 71 years ago when she denounced Joseph McCarthy’s demagoguery – she called it “the Four Horsemen of Calumny: Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear” – Liz Cheney stood last night in a nearly empty House chamber, most of her fellow Republicans having fled the scene, and denounced Donald Trump’s plot to destroy democracy.
And just as Smith assailed her craven party colleagues for bowing to McCarthy and thus ignoring “some of the basic principles of Americanism,” Cheney’s eloquent rebuke of the cowards in her midst will also resonate for years to come: “The election is over. That is the rule of law. That is our constitutional process. Those who refuse to accept the rulings of our courts are at war with the Constitution…This is about our duty as Americans…We must speak the truth.”
There’s an old saying that history doesn’t repeat itself, but often rhymes. And just as Cheney is paying a price for taking a stand against toxic lies and home-grown fascism, by being thrown off the GOP leadership team, Smith took a hit as well. She’d been rumored to be on Dwight Eisenhower’s short list for veep in 1952, but the heat she took for confronting McCarthy made her unacceptable to the party base. She’d had the temerity to say out loud that Republicans should be “Americans first” and “stop being the tools of totalitarian techniques.”
And last night, when Cheney hurled her harsh truths at Republican deaf ears – well, to quote Yogi Berra, it was deja vu all over again:
“Our freedom only survives if we protect it, if we honor our oath, taken before God in this chamber, to support and defend the Constitution, if we recognize threats to freedom when they arise. Today we face a threat America has never seen before. A former president, who provoked a violent attack on this Capitol in an effort to steal the election, has resumed his aggressive effort to convince Americans that the election was stolen from him. He risks inciting further violence. Millions of Americans have been misled by the former President. They have heard only his words, but not the truth, as he continues to undermine our democratic process, sowing seeds of doubt about whether democracy really works at all.”
And democracy dies when one party surrenders itself to lies:
“Remaining silent, and ignoring the lie, emboldens the liar. I will not participate in that. I will not sit back and watch in silence whole others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president’s crusade to undermine our democracy. As the party of Reagan, Republicans championed democracy…Attacks against our democratic process and the rule of law empower our adversaries and feed communist propaganda that American democracy is a failure…We must love (America) so much that we will never yield in her defense. That is our duty.”
Back in 1950, Smith urged her Republican colleagues not to seek victory “through the selfish political exploitation of fear, bigotry, ignorance, and intolerance,” devoid of “political integrity or intellectual honesty.” She said it was “high time” that Republicans “started thinking patriotically as Americans.” Smith persisted, even though it would be four long years before McCarthy’s bubble finally burst.
But in 2021, we don’t have the luxury of waiting so long for justice. The Trumpist termites are busy gnawing away at the democratic woodwork. Sane conservative commentator Mona Charen warns: “If Cheney must be axed because she will not lie, then what will happen if Republicans take control of Congress in 2022 and are called upon to certify the Electoral College in 2024?…How many (Republicans) will preserve any semblance of the rule of law and the primacy of truth? With this sabotage of Cheney, House Republicans are figuratively joining the January 6 mob.”
By falling on her sword (and planning her next steps), Liz Cheney intuitively understands what Margaret Chase Smith said back in her day, that “the right way is not always the popular and easy way.” It is disturbing to realize, in our MAGA-infested present, that telling the truth is not sufficiently popular and that indeed it is deemed grounds for punishment. It will do us no good as a nation if Cheney’s warning is borne out by dire events. In her words, it is “our duty as Americans” to fight back.