From Diana Vance

Monroe

Dear Editor,

Seventy years ago Senator Margaret Chase Smith from Maine in a 15 minute address, she attacked demagogue Sen. Joseph McCarthy when she said “recently...the greatest deliberative body…has been debased to a forum of hate and character assassination.” She asked her fellow Republicans not to ride to political victory on the “Four horsemen of Calumny-Fear Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear.” She condemned the tactics of Joseph McCarthy and concluded with a statement with six other Republican senators her “Declaration of Conscience”.

We now have a Select committee investigating the insurrection on January 6, 2021 incited by the president at that time to overthrow the government. The Select committee has interviewed over 300 people. But the one man who seems most guilty is the former President Donald J. Trump. Several speeches were made on January 6 but the one that incited Trump’s followers the most was his hour-long speech. He incited his supporters with incendiary words like “Fight like hell or you won’t have a government any more” and ending with his arm pointed at the capitol when he ordered them to “Go to the Capitol” where the Senate and the House were meeting to certify The Electoral College votes.

The insurrection turned violent with policemen getting hurt in mortal combat and two of Trump’s supporters being killed. At no time did the president Donald J. Trump tell his supporters to back off but instead he gleefully watched it on T.V. Like Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, Rep. Liz Cheney has been zeroing in on demagogued Mr. Trump and has been kicked out of the Republican party because of it. Her future is quite bleak but Liz Cheney keeps attacking Mr. Trump because she wants as much ammunition to use when Donald Trump is prosecuted for insurrection to overthrow the government.