PORTLAND, Maine — When John F. Kennedy explored the meaning of political courage in the 1950s, he looked for inspiration to eight members of the United States Senate who had served over the previous century and a half. All had broken with their party or their constituents to take principled, unpopular positions on issues of the day.
The price was repudiation and contempt. Kennedy recounted their struggles elegantly in Profiles in Courage, his bestselling book that won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957.
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Ever since, a “profile in courage” has become a byword for uncompromising independence and ruthless honesty in public life. While contemporary historians see some of his subjects less heroically than JFK did, the phrase he etched into the political lexicon resonates today.
Moral courage was once a badge of honour; there was a time we respected elected representatives who resigned on principle and scorned those who didn’t. Today, those values are passé.
Richard Nixon was a crook, a liar and anti-Semite, but he showed honour in 1974 for resigning the presidency before he was impeached for Watergate. Politicians who have been inept, such as Jason Kenney in Alberta, seldom have the courage to resign anymore.
Courage? What does it mean in the age of disinformation, denial and demagoguery? What is courage in politics in a time of conformity, when loyalty to party matters more than ever, and the price of defying the leader is excommunication?
As this country slouches toward autocracy, the question of courage in politics — real, unvarnished, undiluted courage, untested by polls and focus groups — matters as it hasn’t since the Civil War. If American democracy is at stake, it will take the courageous to step forward and save it.
During Donald Trump’s administration, some did. Fiona Hill, a foreign-policy advisor in the White House, appeared before Congress in the 2019 impeachment hearings to challenge his interpretation of events. So did Colonel Alexander Vindman. That took guts.
Members of Trump’s inner circle who lacked courage stayed too long, said too little and left in silence. They included Rex Tillerson, James Mattis, William Barr, John Bolton and Stephanie Grisham.
Had any of them resigned on principle, early and loudly, that would have undermined Trump. Instead, they waited and saved their reservations for their memoirs.
Other Republicans in the states have stood up to Trump and his acolytes, who are now trying to remove them. The most prominent is Brad Raffensperger in Georgia, who refuses to embrace the canard of the stolen election in 2020 and has been a particular target of abuse.
The real heroes are Republicans in Congress who have broken with their party. They most prominent are Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, who have agreed to sit as the only Republicans on the special committee investigating the insurrection of January 6. For this, their party has abandoned them.
Cheney is the lone congresswoman from Wyoming, daughter of the former vice-president, with sterling conservative credentials. She is pro-gun, anti-abortion and fine with waterboarding, declaring the Democrats “the party of anti-Semitism, infanticide and socialism.”
But she does not believe the dogma that the election was stolen — which makes her a minority among Republicans, most of whom do — and is no longer Republican royalty. She’s been defrocked, stripped of her third-ranking position in caucus, shunned by her colleagues, challenged at home for her party’s nomination in 2022 by a candidate backed by Trump.
And yet, Cheney refuses to back down, even if it costs her seat, which it might.
Sadly, there are few of her. It will depend on Republicans, with Democrats, to stop the assault on voting rights and ensure the next presidential election is fair.
They notably include senators who voted to convict Trump in 2021 of trying to overturn the election: Mitt Romney (Utah), Susan Collins (Maine), Patrick Toomey (Pennsylvania), Ben Sasse (Nebraska), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska). As Robert Kagan argues, they could be the difference.
Will they join Democrats in standing up for the republic before it is too late? Will they become new profiles in courage?
Andrew Cohen is a journalist, professor at Carleton University and author of Two Days in June: John F. Kennedy and the 48 Hours that Made History.