On September 2, 1939, the House of Commons debated the British government’s response to the German invasion of Poland the previous day. The ruling Conservative Party was badly divided between those demanding that Britain fulfill its obligations to Poland and those addicted to the habits of appeasement. “Party loyalty” was being invoked to drown out Conservative opposition to Conservative prime minister Neville Chamberlain when the deputy leader of the opposition Labour Party, Arthur Greenwood, rose to speak. Then, from the Tory back benches, came the voice of an anti-appeasement Conservative, Leo Amery, who cried, “Speak for England, Arthur!”
Who speaks for country and principle, not just for faction or party? It’s a perennial question. I was reminded of it, and of Leo Amery, when my friend, Senator Henry M. Jackson, died in 1983, and one of his aides said, “We’ve just lost the last adult in the Senate.” When I asked what that meant, he replied, “There was only one man here who, when a crisis was at hand and the country was at risk, had the personal authority to say, in effect, ‘Close the door; let’s get serious and get this settled.’” That’s what the death of Scoop Jackson meant: the last reference point had left the scene. (And if you want a sense of that aide’s prescience, look at the U.S. Senate today.)
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