WHICH GOP ARE YOU? MCCARTHY? OR SMITH?

Since Trump has decided to keep harassing the female governor of Maine, let’s review a few things. Gov. Mills in the row with Trump over trans rights was not only reinforcing the rule of law in the face of an authoritarian effort, she was also standing up to a bully. Who claims to be protecting women and girls but who has bragged about sexual assault. Been found guilty of sexual assault. Barged in on teenaged girls dressing in the Miss Teen USA changing room. Trump’s political stances do not protect women. He’s worked to deny women and girls access to health care, including the right not to die from a miscarriage. He’s undermined women’s right to control their own bodies. He’s defunded or stopped programs that protect their right to be safe from domestic violence and sexual assault. He’s ended programs designed to protect women’s employment and has fired women from positions of authority. Mills stands in oppositional contrast to Trump. Her career has focused on helping women and girls to overcome domestic violence, the threat of sexual assault, and inequities in the workplace. She follows a fine tradition of strong Maine women standing up to bullies. Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, of Maine, stood up to WI senator Joe McCarthy, who was hoping to gain votes in the 1950 midterm elections by stoking fear of wide-spread communism in the U.S. In a speech in Wheeling, WV McCarthy, a Republican, claimed that he had a list of 205 communists working for the State Dept. and that the Democrats refused to investigate these “traitors in the government.” Sympathetic newspapers trumpeted McCarthy’s charges. Which kept changing, and for which he never offered proof. Many colleagues cheered him on, while those who disapproved kept their heads down to avoid becoming a target. Sound familiar? All but one. With McCarthy sitting two rows behind her, Smith stood up in the Senate. “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.” Americans have the right to criticize, to hold unpopular beliefs, to protest, and to think for themselves. She condemned those trying to stifle dissent. “I do not want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny—Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear.” “As an American, I condemn a Republican Fascist just as much as I condemn a Democrat Communist. They are equally dangerous to you and me and to our country. As an American, I want to see our nation recapture the strength and unity it once had when we fought the enemy instead of ourselves.” And she warned, “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.” Which of these versions of the GOP do you believe in?