Why we need real political courage right now

Will the real public servants, please stand up?

Hi, Ari here, and there’s certainly a lot happening right now… you can read my basic primer on Russia menacing Ukraine here. My new pieces looks at this recurring concept of “political courage.”

Stand Up!

In difficult times, there are usually more calls for “drawing a line,” or “standing up” for a principle. While covering the Trump era, people often come up to me and ask, ‘Why don’t more people stand up to what they must know is wrong with Trump?!’ 

There seems to be a hunger for more political courage.

That appetite, however, should not lead us to delusion. The (understandable) intensity of outrage over conservatives embracing bigoted and authoritarian impulses can stoke an almost desperate reduction of standards for any defectors. So we get exaggerated applause for any Republican criticism, or credulous fandom for characters that some call “Resistance grifters.”

If people are seeking true political courage, it’s worth being clear about what that even means.

Take a recent, very “Washington” news story—where former VP Pence said Trump was wrong and “un-American” to demand Pence help overthrow the 2020 election. 

That basic statement affirming democracy, over a coup, is not some grand, tough stand. It’s the bare minimum of participating in democracy. It’s part of the oath public officials already take. 

Politically, it was a break with Trump and much of the GOP. And for Pence, the public words breaking with Trump this emphatically only came late, long after he’d figured out he has no possible political lane tied to Trump in the G.O.P. (Nine out of ten Republicans do not want him to run for President, a historically low crash for a recent VP, driven by anger over his refusal to help stage a coup.)

Some pundits were rushing to hail Pence as courageous, and this is such a recurring pattern, it’s worth understanding the process.

Pence’s action, timing and motivation are the opposite of a profile in courage.

Pence bailed when had no other good option. Several Trump aides have taken this route—a political pivot cast as a moment of “conscience,” including:

• Gary Cohn, the economic aide who claimed to be so concerned about Trump’s Charlottesville comments that he drafted a letter to resign, but stayed on hoping for a promotion to the Federal Reserve. 

• John Bolton, the national security aide who backed Trump in office, then claimed to ‘break’ with him over concerns about Trump’s corruption, which he then hid from Congress so he could leak them in his book. (Brad Pitt famously ripped that his allotted 45 seconds to accept an Oscar was still “45 more seconds” than Bolton had to face the Senate.)

• Bill Barr, the attorney general who who did everything Trump asked of him and then left in the run-up to January 6, with signals that he opposed the attacks on the election. (Bolton even praised Barr’s supposed independence, perhaps recognizing the move.)

As Rachel Maddow has said, watch what they do, not what they say. 

These aides, like Pence, made moves out of self-interest… while hawking a story about courage and independence. Bolton put his book sales above the information he claimed was vital to U.S. security (his supposed life’s work); Barr certainly knew the mounting demands to overturn an election could land him in danger, facing criminal liability.

Principle transcends partisanship 

The point here is not partisan. 

There are people who truly put public interest above their careers or personal interests. 

In the modern era, Republican John McCain did so when he almost certainly hindered his presidential campaign, behind in the polls, by publicly, emphatically refusing to go near the racism and bigoted attacks on Obama, that were served up by the far Right. 

Democrat Paul Wellstone did so when he voted against the Iraq war, as a matter of conscience, despite overwhelming public opinion going against him. 

Republican Rep. Bob Inglis broke with his own past denialism about climate change to back a carbon tax, and ultimately lost his House seat, dogged by the issue.

The point here is not that one must pay a political sacrifice. Sometimes courage is rewarded. But these officials were willing to take the risk when it mattered, when something was on the line—not simply rewriting their narrative after their options narrowed.

If we want some courage and principle from our leaders, it is worth being precise about it, so that we know it when we see it. 

P.S. On The Beat, I discussed Pence’s political bind as choosing to hunt with wild wolves—until they devoured him. You can see that segment here.