Today, with the radical right the most loyal voting bloc in the party, Republican leaders refuse to call out even the most extreme statements from their followers. But once upon a time, Republican politicians were the champions of reason and compromise. Famously, on June 1, 1950, Senator Margaret Chase Smith, a Republican from Maine, stood up against Republican Senator Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin and his supporters, who were running roughshod over American democracy. 

(Via Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American)

I’m heartened to see more current Republicans standing up to MAGA and Trump and unhinged nonsense, but it’s still not nearly enough.