"Declaration of Conscience"

As always, we must look to the past to understand the present

Senator Margaret Chase-Smith, back in 1950, delivered a short but profound message on the Senate floor titled “Declaration of Conscience.”

I copied it below, so if you’d like to read the whole thing, I highly recommend it.

I will pull a few key points from it and provide some commentary. The conclusion of her declaration outlines five points that remain highly relevant today.

Statement of Seven Republican Senators

1. We are Republicans. But we are Americans first. It is as Americans that we express our concern with the growing confusion that threatens the security and stability of our country. Democrats and Republicans alike have contributed to that confusion.

First off, I will forgive them in this case for being Republicans. It was certainly a different time. However, what she says afterwards is what matters.

She states that we are all Americans, not Republicans, Democrats, or any other party. The whole point is to try to agree that we are all in this together.

Additionally, she speaks of confusion and the growing threats to our country, and it's not just one side of the aisle. She is trying to make clear that divisiveness must stop.

Just like today, we have Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries confusing people about what side they are on.

One day, they are yelling about how bad the Big Ugly Bill is, and the next, they allow it to pass. They claim to be sympathetic to the cause and then do something that is obviously harmful to the public.

This leaves the constituency in confusion. Are they for us, or against us? And if you're not a political junky like me, there is no way to understand the nuances of what they are doing. The bad actors then rely on your lack of understanding to craft messaging that fits their narrative. Therefore, when we are asked to vote, we rely on party loyalty because we lack a clear message. This applies to both sides of the aisle.

This is why Zohran Mamdani’s campaign was so successful. He didn't take PAC money, and he was clear and concise about what he wanted to do. There was no ambiguity.

2. The Democratic administration has initially created the confusion by its lack of effective leadership, by its contradictory grave warnings and optimistic assurances, by its complacency to the threat of communism here at home, by its oversensitiveness to rightful criticism, by its petty bitterness against its critics.

I think, to a certain extent, the Democrats continue to be delivering a message similar to this. Again, we still have a messaging problem. This further contributes to the confusion.

Again, the Democratic leadership remains unable to have one unified message. Whereas the Republicans, until the last couple of weeks, appeared to fall in line.

Mainly, I think the unity was driven by fear, but democrats have not shown a solid front in a very long time, if ever.

3. Certain elements of the Republican Party have materially added to this confusion in the hopes of riding the Republican party to victory through the selfish political exploitation of fear, bigotry, ignorance, and intolerance. There are enough mistakes of the Democrats for Republicans to criticize constructively without resorting to political smears.

This one speaks for itself. If you have been conscious in the last twelve months, this is a plague running through our country. Every day, we experience all of the above: selfishness, fear-mongering, bigotry, ignorance, and intolerance.

This was written in 1950, and we are still dealing with the same hateful rhetoric seventy-five years later.

4. To this extent, Democrats and Republicans alike have unwittingly, but undeniably, played directly into the Communist design of “confuse, divide and conquer.”

This is a little more abstract, but I think you can replace Communist with MAGA.

They are using the same ideas: “confusion, divide, and conquer.”

They have their state-run media/propaganda networks.

They use divisive language constantly to create wedges in any way they can. It could be entirely fabricated, or it could just be an exaggeration meant to cause harm.

And currently they have “conquered.” We have a criminal syndicate in the Whitehouse that is working for a wannabe dictator who is a puppet for Putin.

5. It is high time that we stopped thinking politically as Republicans and Democrats about elections and started thinking patriotically as Americans about national security based on individual freedom. 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.

The final point is what is happening as we speak. We have a totalitarian regime that wants to obliterate what is left of our way of life.

We should be looking out for individuals and providing individual freedom. We should be caring for the people who can’t financially make ends meet.

We should provide free education, free healthcare, and freedom to be oneself. These are not unheard of requests. All across the world, programs like this exist. We are the only advanced country in the world that does not provide free healthcare.

We still need to address problems that were brought up seventy-five years ago. Senator Margaret Chase-Smith saw where the issues were back then. There is no reason that this country should not have figured out how to provide healthcare, education, and a decent minimum wage by now.

Senator Chase-Smith was on to something all those decades back, yet we still fight about it. With the stroke of a pen, many of these problems can be solved. Yes, there are deep-rooted issues that require more than just a signature. However, allocating money to the right place is not one of those things. These are basics: healthcare, education, and a livable wage.

It all really depends on the people in charge and whether or not they can understand that their greed is the problem. They need to stop blaming others and maybe one day look at themselves.

Forgive my naivete. I feel that these are things that honest people can do. These 70-year-old senators are all in the pockets of lobbyists, and it is time for them to get out of the way.

Love you guys.

Erik

Liberaldad

****************

I think that it is high time that we remembered that we have sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution. I think that it is high time that we remembered that the Constitution, as amended, speaks not only of the freedom of speech, but also of trial by jury instead of trial by accusation.

Whether it be a criminal prosecution in court or a character prosecution in the Senate, there is little practical distinction when the life of a person has been ruined.

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. Who of us doesn’t? Otherwise none of us could call our souls our own. Otherwise thought control would have set in.

The American people are sick and tired of being afraid to speak their minds lest they be politically smeared as “Communists” or “Fascists” by their opponents. 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.

The American people are sick and tired of seeing innocent people smeared and guilty people whitewashed. But there have been enough proved cases, such as the Amerasia case, the Hiss case, the Coplon case, the Gold case, to cause Nation-wide distrust and strong suspicion that there may be something to the unproved, sensational accusations.

As a Republican, I say to my colleagues on this side of the aisle that the Republican Party faces a challenge today that is not unlike the challenge that it faced back in Lincoln’s day. The Republican Party so successfully met that challenge that it emerged from the Civil War as the champion of a united nation—in addition to being a party that unrelentingly fought loose spending and loose programs.

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. …

… Surely it is clear that this nation will continue to suffer as long as it is governed by the present ineffective Democratic administration. … Yet to displace it with a Republican regime embracing a philosophy that lacks political integrity or intellectual honesty would prove equally disastrous to this Nation. The Nation sorely needs a Republican victory. But I don’t 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—simply because I don’t believe the American people will uphold any political party that puts political exploitation above national interest. Surely we Republicans aren’t that desperate for victory.

I don’t 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 members of the minority party, we do not have the primary authority to formulate the policy of our Government. But we do have the responsibility of rendering constructive criticism, of clarifying issues, of allaying fears by acting as responsible citizens.

As a woman, I wonder how the mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters feel about the way in which members of their families have been politically mangled in Senate debate—and I use the word “debate” advisedly.

As a United States Senator, I am not proud of the way in which the Senate has been made a publicity platform for irresponsible sensationalism. I am not proud of the reckless abandon in which unproved charges have been hurled from this side of the aisle. I am not proud of the obviously staged, undignified countercharges that have been attempted in retaliation from the other side of the aisle.

I don’t like the way the Senate has been made a rendezvous for vilification, for selfish political gain at the sacrifice of individual reputations and national unity. I am not proud of the way we smear outsiders from the floor of the Senate and hide behind the cloak of congressional immunity and still place ourselves beyond criticism on the floor of the Senate.

…

It is with these thoughts I have drafted what I call a Declaration of Conscience. I am gratified that Senator Tobey, Senator Aiken, Senator Morse, Senator Ives, Senator Thye and Senator Hendrickson, have concurred in that declaration and have authorized me to announce their concurrence.

Statement of Seven Republican Senators

1. We are Republicans. But we are Americans first. It is as Americans that we express our concern with the growing confusion that threatens the security and stability of our country. Democrats and Republicans alike have contributed to that confusion.

2. The Democratic administration has initially created the confusion by its lack of effective leadership, by its contradictory grave warnings and optimistic assurances, by its complacency to the threat of communism here at home, by its oversensitiveness to rightful criticism, by its petty bitterness against its critics.

3. Certain elements of the Republican Party have materially added to this confusion in the hopes of riding the Republican party to victory through the selfish political exploitation of fear, bigotry, ignorance, and intolerance. There are enough mistakes of the Democrats for Republicans to criticize constructively without resorting to political smears.

4. To this extent, Democrats and Republicans alike have unwittingly, but undeniably, played directly into the Communist design of “confuse, divide and conquer.”

5. It is high time that we stopped thinking politically as Republicans and Democrats about elections and started thinking patriotically as Americans about national security based on individual freedom. 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.

Source: Source: “Declaration of Conscience” by Senator Margaret Chase Smith and Statement of Seven Senators, June 1, 1950, Congressional Record, 82nd Congress. 2nd Session, 7894-95.