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It’s really sad that our country is so fractured, polarized, over politics.

Now, we know that the political system bequeathed us by our forefathers has never been all sweetness, evincing respect, for different, opposing viewpoints. Such is not endemic to the human condition.

Yet, with the exception of the pre – Civil War days, the schism has not been so prevalent as it is now. The “Let us agree to disagree agreeably” aspiration seems non-existent. Sad.

There was a time, in the mid-twentieth century, when such tribalism reared its ugly head. Perhaps those alive then recall why, but most Americans, unless they know their history, don’t have a clue. But, as “they” say, “we won’t go there.”

Back to the early 50’s situation I referenced. Joe McCarthy. Remember him? A U.S. senator, a Republican, on a one-man crusade to paint so many with a very wide Communist brush. In the process he tarnished reputations, ruined lives, and destroyed careers, casting a dark cloud over our land.

What he did was to take a molehill of reality and turn it into a mountain of tragic consequences.

As historian David McCullough wrote in his 1992 book “Brave Companions – Portraits in History,” “The twentieth-century senator most written about is Joseph McCarthy. There are a dozen books about McCarthy. Yet there is no biography of the senator who had the backbone to stand up to him first – Margaret Chase Smith.”

“ I speak as a Republican, “ she said on that memorable day in the Senate. “I speak as a United States Senator. I speak as a woman. I speak as an American. I don’t want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the four horsemen of calumny – fear, ignorance, bigotry, and smear.”

As Martin Luther King Jr. said so eloquently, “The long moral arc of the universe bends toward justice.”

Indeed it did, and far more quickly than usual. McCarthy was repudiated. The “commie” scare abated, mostly.

And now, 70 years later, we will see if the latest demagogue is repudiated at the ballot box.

We will see.