By now it should be clear to all that the U.S. Senate is comprised of 47 decent people and 53 Joe McCarthy’s, all 57 with no decency, no shame.
June 1, 1950. Senator Joe McCarthy was on the cusp of his 4-year-long reign of terror. Margaret Chase-Smith, the junior senator from Maine, rose on the Senate floor to speak against McCarthy with a speech we now know as “A Declaration of Conscience.” While all but six other Republican senators — and most Democrats — dived for cover, Senator Chase-Smith called out the evil that was Joe McCarthy.
"Mr. President," she began, "I would like to speak briefly and simply about a serious national condition.... The United States Senate has long enjoyed worldwide respect as the greatest deliberative body.... But recently that deliberative character has...been debased to...a forum of hate and character assassination."
McCarthy responded by referring to her as “Snow White and the Six Dwarfs.” (Can you imagine what McCarthy would have done with Twitter?)
Finally after four years, Joseph Welch with his famous “have you no sense of decency” speech, brought down McCarthy.
Today there are no Chase-Smiths, no Joe Welch’s. Just 53 Joe McCarthy’s with no spine, no sense of decency, nothing but a fear of Trump.