My grandfather was a Republican, an admirer of Margaret Chase Smith. My father was a Democrat, an Ed Muskie man. In spite of this, the political discussions in our home respected the right of others to have opposing views. Or what Sen. Smith called, “the basic principles of Americanism — the right to criticize; the right to hold unpopular beliefs; the right to protest; the right of independent thought.”
In 2002, while I was serving in the Maine House of Representatives, I was invited to Harvard to serve at a symposium to encourage law students to consider public service. When asked about running for office as a woman, I had a view very different from the law students there. I believed that a person’s gender was not a factor in running for public office.
I grew up in a state where Margaret Chase Smith was well known and respected since the late 1940s; she was the first woman to serve in both the House and the Senate and the first female candidate for president from a major party. Maine’s Sen. Olympia Snowe had emerged from a personal tragedy in 1973, to become the first woman in America to serve in both houses of a state legislature and both houses of Congress. She had won more federal elections in Maine than any other person since World War II, and was the third-longest serving woman in the history of the Congress.
Sen. Susan Collins from Maine, first elected in 1996, now the most senior Republican woman in the Senate, has been re-elected three times. In Maine, women have been leaders in both the House; Libby Mitchell served as speaker in 1997 and in the Maine Senate. Beverly Daggett was president in 2002, when I served in the House.
Grampa Cook talked a lot about Margaret Chase Smith and her speech on the floor of the Senate June 1, 1950 — her “Declaration of Conscience.” I was three years old when she gave that speech, but I have read the speech many times.
Sen. Collins displayed the same rare political courage recently as Smith did almost 70 years ago.
With a red rose in her lapel, Margaret Chase Smith stood on the floor of the Senate that day in June, 1950, and spoke the following words:
“I think that it is high time for the United States Senate and its members to do some soul searching — for us to weigh our consciences — on the manner in which we are performing our duty to the people of America; on the manner in which we are using or abusing our individual powers and privileges.
“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.
“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.
“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.”
These words were spoken more than six decades ago.
When Sen. Collins rose to speak on the floor of the Senate on Oct. 5, 2018, echoes of this speech reverberated when she said, “It is not merely a case of different groups having different opinions. It is a case of people bearing extreme ill will toward those who disagree with them. In our intense focus on our differences, we have forgotten the common values that bind us together as Americans.”
You have the right to disagree with her, the right to protest against her speech, but respect her right to hold an unpopular belief and the right to independent thought. And recognize her political courage in voting her conscience.
Joan Bryant-Deschenes is a former Maine legislator. She lives in Turner.
Joan Bryant-Deschenes
Send questions/comments to the editors.
