We admire courage in soldiers, police, firefighters, rescuers — in everyone.
John F. Kennedy wrote a book called “Profiles in Courage” about “eight American patriots, mainly United States Senators, who at crucial moments in our nation’s history, … disregarded dreadful consequences … to do that one thing which seemed right in itself. They were men of various political and regional allegiances—their one overriding loyalty was to the United States.”
And then you have the gutless wonders making up the top echelons of today’s Republican Party.
For example, the legions of GOP electeds who refuse to acknowledge that Trump lost and his “election fraud” claims are a pack of lies.
As CNN political writer Chris Cillizza points out (here), who won is a simple matter of fact, and if you believe Biden lost and stole the election from Trump, you’re wrong. Period.
As Cillizza says, “it’s NOT a 50-50 coin flip! This is not a some-people-say-the-2020-election-was-stolen-while-others-say-it-wasn’t thing!” The conspiracy theories are “wholly false!”
This is a free country, and people can believe and say whatever they want. But embracing and propagating falsehoods doesn’t make them true. They can also vote for whoever they want — that’s personal choice. But, as we saw in the last election, plenty of people — especially those who admire character, and have character themselves — won’t vote for gutless cowards afraid of a liar’s angry mobs.
And today, that’s basically the entire Republican Party, with few exceptions, and they’re trying to run those exceptions out of their party.
That’s not a party a responsible voter who cares about our country’s future can vote for. Some of the voters who gave Democrats the White House and Congress last fall might not care for some of their policies. But the GOP leaves them little choice, because they have nowhere else to go.
Have you actually read the profiles? And the book was mostly written by Ted Sorenson.
Are you actually saying that this is anywhere nearly as consequential as the Nuremberg trials? Acquitting Andrew Jackson? These are courages Senators all, but not necessarily patriots. Only John Quincy Adams qualifies as a patriot in being alive at the time of the Revolution and at times assisted his father in Europe.
The point of the book is Senators getting screwed for doing the right thing. This is a story as old as the Republic. And it could be when the history books are written in ten or twenty years the past election is described in less than stellar terms by less biased historians. You do have Trump getting the most votes as loser than any other losing candidate. Typically when the incumbent increases the number of votes they win reelection. [Edited comment.]
Kennedy had help, but many authors employ research assistants, all published work goes through the hands of editors, and some books (e.g., Trump’s “Art of the Deal”) are indeed ghostwritten. Basically, you’re saying “Profiles” was, too, but scholars who’ve examined the evidence disagree with you. Saying the “book was mostly written by Ted Sorenson” overlooks JFK’s very substantial role in its creation. For a detailed discussion about authorship, and respective roles of JFK and Sorenson, and involvement of other individuals, see Wikipedia entry here.
Future historians will write that Biden won the election, Trump’s election fraud claims are utterly false, his lies incited a violent insurrection; and post-election, the GOP has descended into a swamp of falsehoods, bizarre conspiracy theories, and become an even more toxic personality cult.