Letter to the editor: Past statesmen from Missouri were on the right side of history

Show-Me wisdom

It will be written in American history that our democracy faced its darkest hour during the presidency of Donald Trump.

Historians will replay Trump’s famous speech at the July 24, 2018, Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Kansas City, in which he told the audience: “What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.”

Future history professors will note that Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley followed “Trumpublican” pressure and advocated that the Senate acquit the president in his impeachment trial before an effort was even begun to learn the truth.

In the future, it will be pointed out that Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt helped set the rules that forever reduced Congress’ oversight role of the executive branch and made our government more closely aligned with Russia’s authoritarian system under President Vladimir Putin.

The last time our democracy faced a demagogue of this magnitude, Independence’s own President Harry Truman called senators who backed Sen. Joe McCarthy “moral pygmies.” Missouri Sen. Stuart Symington bucked public opinion and led the Senate committee that resulted in McCarthy’s censure and the public disgrace of his chief counsel, Roy Cohn, who went on to become Trump’s own mentor.

Historians credit our commonsense Missouri leaders of the past with helping to preserve our democracy. Our current partisan leaders will put our state on the wrong side of history — forever.

- David H. Smith, Albany, Missouri