Profiles In Courage

In the fifties, then Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy published a book chronicling the lives and actions of eight United States senators from John Quincy Adams to Robert A. Taft, who took unpopular stands. How much of the book Profiles in Courage was the work of Kennedy, and how much was the work of the man who would become the 35th president's head speech writer, Theodore Sorenson is still up for debate. Nevertheless, in 1990, in honor of the slain president, the Kennedy family created the Profile in Courage Award, given annually to public figures, the majority of them politicians, who risked their careers and sometimes much more by pursuing objectives based upon their merit rather than pressure from public opinion or political expedience.

The Profile in Courage Award is bi-partisan, Republicans as well as Democrats have been recipients of the award, as well as a handful of international figures. 

If you have been following the current events at the time of this writing, you can probably see where this is going. There are two current members of Congress who if there is any justice in the world, are surefire future recipients of this prestigious honor. 

Republican U.S. Representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois are both on the right ideologically, espousing what one might call traditional Republican values. For her part, in Congress, Cheney famously voted on bills supported by former president Donald Trump, 93 percent of the time. In Trump's first two years of office, Kinzinger voted along with the then president 99 percent of the time. After the brutal murder of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi by agents of the government of Saudi Arabia, Kinzinger twice voted against barring sales of arms to that country. Sounding very much like the exPOTUS, Kinzinger said: 

... to completely realign our interests in the Middle East as a result of this, (Khashoggi's murder) when for instance, the Russians kill journalists... Turkey imprisons journalists?... It’s not a sinless world out there.

Given this, I am all but diametrically opposed to Cheney and Kinzinger ideologically and would probably not vote for either in a general election. Yet the three of us have at least a few things in common: a love of this country, its constitution, and a profound respect for and belief in our Democratic-Republican form of government. 

Because of that, both Cheney and Kinzinger rejected Donald Trump's lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him. Both Cheney and Kinzinger, along with eight other House Republicans, voted to impeach the soon-to-be exPOTUS for his part in inciting the insurrection on the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 in an attempt to overturn a free and fair election. 

Both Cheney and Kinzinger are currently members of the congressional committee investigating the acts of January 6 and the involvement of the exPOTUS, the only Republicans to serve on that panel. 

Unfortunately, these actions supporting the rule of law, the U.S. Constitution and our very democracy over a man who would destroy all of that in order to remain in power, have made Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger both persona-non-grata in their party.

Apparently, there is no room in the Republican Party for diverse opinions, especially not for people who tell inconvenient truths. By rejecting Donald Trump and his lies, by putting their country before their party and its dear leader, neither Cheney nor Kinzinger will remain in Congress after the upcoming November election. Months ago, Kinzinger announced his intention not to run for re-election and Cheney, who in previous elections in the same Wyoming congressional district won by landslides, was trounced by a Trump endorsed candidate in the primary election last week. 

Far beyond that, both Cheney and Kinzinger have received death threats by members of the Trump base, resulting from a constant barrage of vitriol leveled at them by the exPOTUS and his sycophants. Kinsinger has even reported that his infant son has been the target of death threats. 

Yet both Cheney and Kinsinger endeavor to fight in order to save our democracy, despite paying a dear price for it.

Are Cheney and Kinzinger true examples profiles in courage? In my book, they are the very personification of courage, there may have never been more deserving recipients of that honor since the inception of the award. It is truly an easy choice.

On the other hand, if there were an inverse award, a Profiles of Cowardice Award, I'm afraid narrowing the field down to two candidates would be quite difficult, due to the relentless hypocrisy of the GOP. 

More on that in the next post, stay tuned.