Conservative65
Gold Member
- Oct 14, 2014
- 26,127
- 2,208
- 265
- Banned
- #41
She's just another one exercising her right to be a dumbass and doing a good job at it.
"Coward"?
Actually Susan Collins is hardly the first female Republican Senator from Maine to stand up for the honest assessment even if it requires calling out her own political party. Waaaaaay back when Rump was not just an emotional toddler but a physical one too (with even tinier hands), he had a role model who also used hate speech and divisiveness to satiate his own ego in the same way Rump is doing now. Susan Collins' predecessor stood up in the Senate and called him out in public --- four years before Edward R. Murrow did:
Like Collins after her Margaret Chase Smith (1897-1995) chose to be honest rather than partisan -- or as this board would have called her, "a RINO". She was the first woman to be placed in nomination for President by a major political party (1964), and might well have made a far more effective competitor to Lyndon Johnson than Barry Goldwater was.
>> ... I speak as a Republican. I speak as a woman. I speak as a United States Senator. I speak as an American.
...I think that it is high time for the United States Senate and its members to do some soul-searching -- for us to weigh our consciences -- on the manner in which we are performing our duty to the people of America -- on the manner in which we are using or abusing our individual powers and privileges.
I think that it is high time that we remembered that we have sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution. I think that it is high time that we remembered that the Constitution, as amended, speaks not only of the freedom of speech but also of trial by jury instead of trial by accusation. Whether it be a criminal prosecution in court or a character prosecution in the Senate, there is little practical distinction when the life of a person has been ruined.
Those of us who shout the loudest about Americanism in making character assassinations are all too frequently those who, by our own words and acts, ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism:
The right to criticize;
The right to hold unpopular beliefs;
The right to protest;
The right of independent thought.
... The American people are sick and tired of being afraid to speak their minds lest they be politically smeared as "Communists" or "Fascists" by their opponents. Freedom of speech is not what it used to be in America. It has been so abused by some that it is not exercised by others. (* or to put it another way, "there used to be consequences...")
... As a Republican, I say to my colleagues on this side of the aisle that the Republican Party faces a challenge today that is not unlike the challenge that it faced back in Lincoln’s day. The Democratic Administration has greatly lost the confidence of the American people by its complacency to the threat of communism here at home and the leak of vital secrets to Russia though key officials of the Democratic Administration. There are enough proved cases to make this point without diluting our criticism with unproved charges.
Surely these are sufficient reasons to make it clear to the American people that it is time for a change and that a Republican victory is necessary to the security of this country. Surely it is clear that this nation will continue to suffer as long as it is governed by the present ineffective Democratic Administration.
Yet to displace it with a Republican regime embracing a philosophy that lacks political integrity or intellectual honesty would prove equally disastrous to this nation. The nation sorely needs a Republican victory. But I don’t want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny -- Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear.
I doubt if the Republican Party could -- simply because I don’t believe the American people will uphold any political party that puts political exploitation above national interest. Surely we Republicans aren’t that desperate for victory.
I don’t want to see the Republican Party win that way. While it might be a fleeting victory for the Republican Party, it would be a more lasting defeat for the American people. Surely it would ultimately be suicide for the Republican Party and the two-party system that has protected our American liberties from the dictatorship of a one party system.
.... As an American, I am shocked at the way Republicans and Democrats alike are playing directly into the Communist design of "confuse, divide, and conquer." As an American, I don’t want a Democratic Administration “whitewash” or "cover-up" any more than I want a Republican smear or witch hunt.
... 1. We are Republicans. But we are Americans first. It is as Americans that we express our concern with the growing confusion that threatens the security and stability of our country. Democrats and Republicans alike have contributed to that confusion.
5. It is high time that we stopped thinking politically as Republicans and Democrats about elections and started thinking patriotically as Americans about national security based on individual freedom. It is high time that we all stopped being tools and victims of totalitarian techniques -- techniques that, if continued here unchecked, will surely end what we have come to cherish as the American way of life. << --- Margaret Chase Smith , US Senate June 1 1950
Ummmmm.... speaking of exercising one's right to be a dumbass, she passed away over 20 years ago, at age 97. This was from 1950. Which info was all right there in the post.
But if you think the right to free speech, the cornerstone upon which this country is founded, is "being a dumbass" --- perhaps you'd like to book a flight back to Pyonyang. They like your brand of Dumbassery there.
Susan Collins is dead? I wasn't talking about Margaret Smith. Seems you're another dumbass exercising their right to be one.
I didn't say having the right to free speech made someone a dumbass. I said WHAT they said WHEN speaking made them a dumbass. You keep proving my claim about you.
