Douglas Brinkley, U.S. presidential historian, and author:
Let’s celebrate Independence Day, an underappreciated American archetype: The hyperpartisan defender for democracy. This is a politician who puts country before party when in crisis.
From 1774 to 1789, Charles Thomson served as Secretary of the Continental Congress. His name was also included in John Hancock’s original printing of Declaration of Independence.
Thomson mistakenly believed that the new country could not survive a two party system. He also believed that polarization would rule supreme and that the nation would eventually devolve into two mobs fighting for power every four.
Thomson didn’t realize then that the federal government could produce corrupt leaders like Cassidy Hutchinson or Liz Cheney. They are truth-tellers according to the Margaret Chase Smith tradition.
In the 1950s Senator Joe McCarthy (a Republican) had gained considerable power in Washington through red-baiting citizens to label them communists. McCarthy was not criticized by Democrats; instead, Senator Margaret Chase Smith, a Republican from Maine, attacked McCarthy in her 1950 “declaration-of-conscience” speech on the Senate floor. She accused her fellow GOP member of “debasing” America.
Chase Smith’s willingness and ability to tell the truth to her party members was Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony last week before the January 6 Committee. She bravely stated that she did not want to see the United States Capital destroyed and peaceful power transfer disrupted.
Similar to Watergate, it was not the Democrats who didomed Richard Nixon’s fate but three straight Republicans: John Dean and Howard Baker, as well as Barry Goldwater.
Charles Thomson, be assured: A discombobulated Donald Trump was reported to have grabbed the wheel of his armored SUV and directed it towards the U.S. Capitol Riot. On January 6, 2021 Liz Cheney, Cassidy Hutchinson, and other patriots, headed straight for the Constitution.
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Young Kim produced the story. Chad Cardin is the editor.
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