On a recent segment of “Morning Joe,” Forbes and NBC News highlighted two women over age fifty on opposite ends of the political spectrum that have made their mark on current events and politics: Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House and third in line of presidential succession; and Wyoming Representative, Liz Cheney, third ranking member of the House Republican Caucus.

Both women have distinguished themselves by standing up to the “strong man” having held the world’s most powerful position, President Donald Trump. Pelosi has engineered an historic two impeachment proceedings against him, insisting that we do not say to a president, “Do whatever you want in the last months of your administration … because people want to make nice.”

Cheney, known as a “Conservative’s Conservative,” rocked the political world as one of a handful of Republicans favoring impeachment with, “The President could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not. There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”

With Pelosi’s long antipathy to Trump — no surprise there. But with her Republican conservative heritage, Cheney stands in stark contrast to tough-talking men who, either due to allegiance to his person, or out of fear, continue to support Trump.

House Minority Leader, Kevin McCarthy, after initially holding Trump at least partially responsible for the invasion of the Capitol quickly made amends by a trip to Florida and a photo-op with Trump.

Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, after admitting it would be a way to rid the Republicans of Trump, chastised the Democrats for the impeachment exercise.

Senator John Cornyn of Texas opines that Trump should be held to account, but not by the Senate. He usually talks tough, but he’s not tough enough to take a tough vote. 

The entire Senate Republican caucus tried to rule the impeachment proceedings as “unconstitutional,” due to the fact that Trump is no longer in office. That move failed.

Clearly, Republican senators don’t want to face the music. A vote to convict will offend Trump’s base voters, possibly setting them up for a primary challenge. However, a vote to acquit will, short run, set them up as excusing Trump’s part in the riot, and, long run, on the wrong side of history.

Thus, the Republican strategy is to argue “process,” instead of whether Trump is — or was — worthy of holding the highest office in the land.  

By her sharp departure from powerful Republicans who can justly be accused of hypocrisy and sheer cowardice, Liz Cheney is standard bearer for one possible direction of the Republican Party.  Does the Party purge themselves of Trump’s excesses and set a new direction, or, does it remain the party of Trump?

Insofar as Cheney’s action has incentivized Trump supporters to punish her, it can clearly be seen as an act of courage. “Strong men” of the Republican Party have called for her removal as House Republican Whip. One of the most vocal, publicity-seeking House Republicans, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz has already traveled to Wyoming to denounce its conservative representative and urge Cheney’s defeat.

Among the few Republicans seeking a new direction for the Party, Liz Cheney stands out. When it comes to political courage, sometimes it takes a woman, like Margaret Chase Smith back in the 1950s.

Wheeling, West Virginia, February 9, 1950 finds Wisconsin’s junior Senator, Joseph McCarthy, addressing the County Women’s Republican Club. He waves before his audience a piece of paper saying, “I have here in my hand a list of 205 State Department employees, known to the Secretary of State as members of the Communist Party…” The Soviets had recently exploded their first nuclear weapon, China had fallen to the Communists in 1949, and as the Cold War was in full swing, the hot war in Korea would start in another four months.

McCarthy’s words caught the nation by storm, and the hunt for Communists was on. McCarthy reveled in the media attention and his charges got wilder and ever more irresponsible. With McCarthy’s charges, careers were ruined, including those of honorable diplomats and journalists known as “The China Hands.” These were journalists and Foreign Service Officers of the Department of State with expertise and experience in China. Their criticism of Nationalist President Chiang Kai-shek, and prescient warnings that the Communists were winning, set them up for the charge that The China Hands were responsible for losing China, their careers effectively ended.

The China Hands were exonerated in 1971. But their expertise and knowledge of Southeast Asia that could have affected American policy toward Vietnam was lost at a crucial time.

McCarthy’s hunt for Communists — he never uncovered a single unknown Communist — had a muzzling effect on domestic debate on Cold War issues and managed to frighten millions of Americans. Even Dwight Eisenhower who despised McCarthy refused to criticize him when campaigning in Milwaukee in 1952. McCarthy’s power ended in 1954 when he accused the U.S. Army of coddling known Communists. That was finally too much for tough talking U.S. Senators who had been too timid to criticize McCarthy. It was now safe to pile on.

But it was the first and then-only female Senator, Margaret Chase Smith, who nailed McCarthy early on, when it took great courage to do so. Just four months after McCarthy’s Wheeling speech, as a newly minted freshman senator, in a fifteen minute address she spoke of how the deliberative character of the Senate was debased to a forum of hate and character assassination. She asked her fellow Republicans to not ride to victory on “fear, ignorance, bigotry and smear.”

For this, she and six supporters who signed her “Declaration of Conscience,” were dismissed as “Snow White and the Six Dwarfs.”

But four years later, McCarthy’s demagogic political career ended with censure. Margaret Chase Smith’s was just beginning.

Will history one day see Liz Cheney as another Margaret Chase Smith? We don’t know. But both women illustrate that when it comes to political courage, it often takes a woman.

  — John Waelti of Monroe, a retired professor of economics, can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears Saturdays in the Monroe Times.