Senator Angus King Issues Modern 'Declaration of Conscience' on Trump’s First 100 Days

Seventy-five years back, Maine's junior Republican Senator Margaret Chase Smith shook up the Senate with her iconic ‘Declaration of Conscience’ – a gutsy speech delivered at the height of the Red Scare. She told her aide not to hand out copies until she started talking, just in case her nerves got the better of her. Spoiler alert: they didn’t, and she made history.

Fast forward to today, Senator Angus King draws from Smith’s legendary stand, warning that America is facing a crisis eerily similar to hers — but this one’s homegrown, threatening the very foundation of our democratic experiment.

Smith’s speech opened with a stark warning: a national feeling of fear and frustration could lead to "national suicide," thanks to a lack of leadership in both Congress and the White House. She urged the Senate to do some real soul-searching about how it wields its power and privileges, and to stop thinking like party hacks and start thinking like patriots. Her call was clear: ditch the political games, defend freedom, and don’t become tools of totalitarianism.

King doesn’t mince words. He says today’s challenge isn’t about partisan politics or even disagreeing with the president’s agenda; it’s about how that agenda is being pushed. He claims the president is bulldozing the usual checks and balances, threatening the Constitution itself – and Congress is just sitting on its hands, making them complicit.

King points out that the president’s main job is to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed" – not pick and choose which to follow. He argues that the current administration’s piecemeal actions all add up to a disturbing pattern: a sprint toward one-man rule. For those who like what the president is doing and ignore how he’s doing it, King offers a warning: don’t get too comfortable, because next time, the target could be you.

So, what’s left to stop this? King sees three guardrails: Congress (which he says is flunking its duties), the courts (still hanging tough), and the people themselves, who are speaking up everywhere from rallies to the grocery store. He insists it’s up to all of us to defend the Constitution against threats both foreign and domestic.

Wrapping up with a nod to Margaret Chase Smith’s courage and Abraham Lincoln’s timeless warning that "we cannot escape history," King urges today’s leaders to choose honor and defend the Constitution, even when it’s the hard thing to do. Let’s hope this fiery trial lights our way to the right side of history – because nobody wants their legacy to end up in the dishonor column.