Years ago, during my high school years, I read John F. Kennedy’s book “Profiles in Courage”. The book was about eight US Senators who in US history, chronicling instances where they defied the pressures of various forces – their party, their state legislature, their President, but above all their constituents the American people – in a moment of national crisis, enduring insults from all sides.

Senator Kennedy wrote the book in the mid 1950’s while on convalescent leave from back surgery due to injuries during WWII. He had a interest in political courage from his days in college where his senior thesis was on Great Britain’s lack of political courage to rearm and confront the overt efforts of Germany under Adolf Hitler in rebuilding their military.

Why is this book relevant today? In today’s political environment of hyper partisanship the lack of political courage in not just concerning, but frightening. This lack of political courage exists on both sides of the isle, but is glaringly apparent on the right within the Republican Party.

Rather than courage, they express their fear. Kennedy described this as being, in parentheses I add my thoughts:

– pressure to be liked (fear of being disliked)

– pressure to be re-elected (fear of not being re-elected), and

– pressure of the constituency and interest groups (fear of their voters, fear of special interest groups, fear of Political Action Committees).

This fear that permeates the Republican Party today is grounded in their banner bearer, their nominee for President – Donald J. Trump. Men and women within the Republican Party that condemned Trump’s actions after the November election leading up to the January 6th attack on our Capitol and our democracy have succumbed to their fears, abandoned their principles, and violated their oaths to protect and preserve our Constitution and our Republic. And those that did not, they have been driven out of the Republican Party.

Kennedy also wrote about this in his book. He wrote, “In a democracy, every citizen, regardless of his interest in politics, ‘holds office’; every one of us is in a position of responsibility; and, in the final analysis, the kind of government we get depends upon how we fulfill those responsibilities. We, the people, are the boss, and we will get the kind of political leadership, be it good or bad, that we demand and deserve.”

This fall, the American people will have a choice. From that choice our people will get, as Kennedy said, the government they deserve. And it is not the choice between two bad alternatives, two aged candidates, two political parties.

The choice is about what this country chooses to be as it moves forward. It will be a choice of a vision of a country moving forward, seeking a path forward for all its people, of a country that will seek solutions to the issues it faces, of a country that chooses to continue to be a leader of the free world. Or it will be a choice of a vision of a country that seeks to benefit only those loyal to a single individual, benefiting primarily only those that already sit in a positions of wealth and power, of a country where government will extend its reach into the most private aspects of personal freedoms, of retreating from positions and policies that have secured the nation’s position leading the free world, that have built the world’s strongest economy and kept the world from entering disastrous world wide conflicts for the past eighty years.

This fall it will be up to the American electorate to determine what type of government we chose to have. A government that governs for the common good, or a government that governs only for those that pledge their fealty, their faith and loyalty, to a single individual.

In this time, in this place we need our elected officials to stand to the test of Kennedy’s “Profiles in Courage”. As he wrote, “The true democracy, living and growing and inspiring, puts its faith in the people – faith that the people will not simply elect men who will represent their views ably and faithfully, but also elect men who will exercise their conscientious judgment – faith that the people will not condemn those whose devotion to principle leads them to unpopular courses, but will reward courage, respect honor and ultimately recognize right.”

Today, now, we need our elected officials to put their principles and their country, ahead of their party, ahead of their party’s leader, even ahead of their constituency. They need to govern their actions on what is right, and let the chips fall how they may afterwards.