Profiles in Courage? Hard pressed to find political courage

His Profiles in Courage won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957, and in it, Kennedy described in short biographies the acts of bravery and integrity from eight United States Senators throughout the Senate’s sometimes turbulent and fascinating history.

In 2016 I believe Americans would be hard pressed to find any United States Senators, governors or Representatives who might somehow rise to Kennedy’s then standard of what defines political courage.

Political courage has become a fleeting term in the 21st Century. Rather than taking principled positions, designed to make our country stronger, the men and women who legislate for us, and portend to speak for us in the hallowed halls of Congress, simply refuse to take principled positions, and instead run for the nearest exit – or the nearest fundraiser.

Senators profiled by Kennedy for their courage included Daniel Webster, the enlightened Congressman who spoke out in favor of the Compromise of 1850, and of course Robert A. Taft, from Ohio, who was critical of the Nuremberg Trials, the episode following World War II that tried Nazi war criminals under ex post facto laws. Taft was a favorite to win the 1948 Republican nomination for president in 1948, but his stance on Nuremberg led to his failure.

Where are these men or women of courage today?

Certainly not in the United States Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, of the great state of Kentucky, refuses to answer the most basic questions about the qualifications of his party’s Republican presidential nominee, a certain billionaire by the name of Donald J. Trump. Neither will he even discuss the viability of simple gun restrictions, or even allow an up or down vote on a Supreme Court nominee – among many issues facing Americans in the 21st Century.

McConnell is fully aware that Mr. Trump is not qualified, and you can see the tension in his jowls as he refuses to answer this question and others posed by thoughtful journalists.

Instead, McConnell, quite strikingly and sadly, puts his party ahead of his country, refusing to acknowledge the fact that Trump would be an unmitigated disaster. Instead the longtime senator would rather retreat within his turtle shell and watch as his country falls apart under Trump than place Hillary Clinton in the White House.

Profile in courage?

And certainly there remains a lack of conviction in the United States House of Representatives, where Speaker Paul Ryan, who many have referred to as a man of principle, appeared early on that he might in fact surprise us by putting country ahead of party and refuse to endorse Trump. Instead, Ryan equivocated, ultimately agreeing to support the presumptive Republican nominee – some say against his better nature.

Again, Ryan’s Trump endorsement, which you can tell leaves a bad taste in his mouth, is a blatant example of party over country. The Speaker has virtually nothing in common with Trump, politically or personally, but still he endorses him.

Time and again Ryan has been pressed to dismiss the Republican nominee and part-time carnival barker, but refuses to do so, once again, placing the interests of his party ahead of the interests of the people of this country.

Profile in courage?

The former Democrat turned Republican Trump is a man of no real convictions, who also appears to have perfected the art of the lie, having amassed so many of them. Trump says he will void the hard work put into the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade agreement among 12 Pacific Rim countries to expand and promote trade. He wants to build a wall along the Mexico-U.S. border and make Mexico pay for it. He wants to round up 11 million immigrants and ship them out of the country, and refuse entry into the United States of all Muslims.

These are but a few issues on which many of his Republican “friends” disagree with Trump.

These positions and others are in direct opposition of views shared by McConnell and Ryan, yet the two so-called representatives of the people continue to support the presumptive Republican nominee.

Quickly, somebody explain to me where lies the “Courage.”

There are certainly men and women of substance, to be sure, who put country first, but unfortunately they’re not the ones who make the key decisions, who have the power to limit the amount of debate, or refuse to allow a vote on gun control legislation, or put forth the nomination of a Supreme Court Justice.

As long as these men and women who put the interest of party ahead of our national needs, we can fully expect to remain mired in a political Twilight Zone. And that’s not good four our country, or our world.