Maine moderates continue Sen. Smith’s centrist tradition

The election moves nearer and political partisans move farther apart. But the moderate majority of Americans can gain renewed hope by recalling the legacy of Margaret Chase Smith and her enduring influence on Maine politics.

Margaret Chase Smith was a pioneer and a profile in courage. The first woman to be popularly elected to the U.S. Senate, she was also a steadfast voice for the vital center: someone who defended the national interest, instead of special interests.

She was the first person to stand up to fellow Republican Sen. Joe McCarthy during his witch-hunt for communists inside the U.S. government. She took heat from partisan extremists in her own party leadership, but her Declaration of Conscience eventually led to McCarthy’s downfall.

She never let party loyalty eclipse her common sense. She wanted her GOP to win elections, but not at any cost, declaring, “I don’t want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny: Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear.”

Rigid extremists rarely have a sense of humor, but Margaret Chase Smith disarmed her critics and won allies by realizing that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. When asked what she would do if she woke up one day in the White House, she replied, “I’d go straight to Mrs. Truman and apologize; then I’d go home.”

Her pioneering successes proved that centrists could be both civil and effective. In 1960, she won re-election by a larger margin than any other Republican senator. Her strong support among voters helped establish a tradition of nonpartisan public

officials in Maine, a standard for leadership respected by centrists across America.

Following in the footsteps of Margaret Chase Smith, Maine’s moderate Republican senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, have only grown in influence and achievement. Standing with Sen. John McCain and other moderates from both parties, they have played especially pivotal roles in this election year’s congressional session. Together they formed the core of senators that block the cynical wedge issue of a proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage as well as the imbalanced multi-billion dollar budget that Republican leaders were trying to force on future generations.

Susan Collins worked with Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman to get the president to act on the recommendations of the 9-11 Commission report. Thanks to their role as bridge-builders in the senate, the center has held against attacks by the establishment.

Maine’s Angus King stands out as one of the few independent governors in American history to be re-elected – a victory which proves that an independent can also be effective. King’s model of political independence exemplifies a rising generation of radical centrists, who – as King described himself – are “too fiscally conservative for the Democrats and too socially liberal for the Republicans, like 75 percent of the American people.” King recently made news again when he endorsed John Kerry – after supporting George W. Bush four years previously.

King specifically denounced the administration’s abandonment of fiscal responsibility in the face of rising government spending, deficits and debt. “Our generation is buying things that we want and passing the bill onto the next generation,” King said. “That’s wrong. It’s irresponsible. And I think it verges on being immoral.”

In an election year that has polarized the nation and pushed the parties to the extremes, Americans need examples of principled independence. They are tired of intolerant voices on the far-right and far-left. As they move forward, striving to restore balance to our national political dialogue, they can take comfort from the words of Margaret Chase Smith: “It is time that the great center of our people, who reject the violence and unreasonableness of both the extreme right and the extreme left, searched their consciences, mustered their moral and physical courage, shed their intimidated silence, and declare their consciences.”

This message remains good and timely advice. Now we must act on it.

John P. Avlon is a columnist and associate editor of the New York Sun, former chief speechwriter for New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, and author of “Independent Nation: How the Vital Center is Changing American Politics” (Harmony Books, 2004). He will be speaking at the Margaret Chase Smith Library in Skowhegan at 2 p.m. Saturday.