Susan Collins never had a Margaret Chase Smith moment

Detailed summary

Collins compared her defeat to that of Maine’s pioneering female senator. But Smith made her mark by standing up to a demagogue. Collins never did.

After losing her Senate race to Democrat Troy Jackson, Susan Collins compared her record and fate to that of Margaret Chase Smith, the first woman to represent Maine in the Senate.

“I would argue that I have, like Margaret Chase Smith, taken a lot of tough votes and stood up for what I believe in,” Collins told The New York Times. “But I think the best comparison is we each lost our last race for the Senate. I have now had my Margaret Chase Smith moment.”

Yes, both lost races. But to those who fully understand the meaning of a “Margaret Chase Smith moment,” the opposite of what Collins argues is true. She lost because she never took on President Trump and his MAGA politics the way Smith took on Senator Joe McCarthy, a fellow Republican who led a political witch hunt rooted in fear, prejudice, and baseless allegations.

“It’s precisely because she didn’t have a true Margaret Chase Smith moment that Collins was beat, I think,” Larry Tye, author of “Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy,” told me via email. “That moment for Smith wasn’t her being defeated at the end of a long career, but making that career about conscience and standing up to a demagogue when nobody else would.”

Smith’s “moment” came on June 1, 1950, when as a freshman senator she delivered a “Declaration of Conscience” on the Senate floor. While she never spoke McCarthy’s name, she essentially denounced him for turning that body into “a forum of hate and character assassination sheltered by the shield of congressional immunity.”

In her 15-minute speech, Smith went on to say, “It is high time for the United States Senate and its members to do some real soul searching and to weigh our consciences as to the manner in which we are performing our duty to the people of America and the manner in which we are using or abusing our individual powers and privileges.”

True “Americanism,” Smith said, embraces the right to criticize, to hold unpopular beliefs, and to protest.

She also said did not…

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Opening of the article, excerpted from The Boston Globe. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.