Bernie Rabik: 2022 Profiles in Courage
John F. Kennedy had long been interested in the topic of political courage, beginning with his senior thesis at Harvard. The thesis was a study of the failure of British political leaders in the 1930s to oppose popular resistance to rearming, leaving the country ill-prepared for World War II.
Kennedy’s election to the House in 1946 and the Senate in 1952 gave him personal experience in dealing with the conflicting pressures which legislators face.
When Kennedy took a leave of absence from the Senate in 1954 to recover from back surgery, it gave him the opportunity to study the topic of political courage. The project resulted in the publication of Profiles in Courage, which focuses on the careers of eight United States senators Kennedy felt had shown great courage under enormous pressure from their parties and their constituents.
His own battles with physical pain and his experiences in World War II as a PT boat commander also gave him inspiration. Profiles in Courage, which Kennedy dedicated to his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, received the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1957.
Defining Political Courage
In the preface to Profiles in Courage, Senator Kennedy discusses the “problems of political courage in the face of constituent pressures, and the light shed on those problems by the lives of past statesmen.” He describes the three types of pressure faced by senators as: pressure to be liked; pressure to be re-elected; and pressure of the constituency and interest groups.
John F. Kennedy explains that the book is about his admiration of the courage shown by elected leaders in the face of adverse factions like their electorates, popular opinion, and political action committees which pull these elected men in different directions. He writes: “This is a book about that most admirable of human virtues – courage. ‘Grace under pressure,’ Hemingway defined it.”
Impactful Excerpt
“A man does what he must – in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures –and that is the basis of all human morality.”
Since 1989, the Kennedy family has given out Profile in Courage Awards for protecting democracy. Named for John F. Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, the honor is awarded annually to “a public official (or officials) at the federal, state, or local level whose actions demonstrate the qualities of politically courageous leadership.”
Jack Schlossberg, Kennedy’s grandson, has announced the 2022 recipients of the award, under the theme “Defending Democracy.” For the first time in the award’s history, five individuals will be honored: Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelensky, Wyoming’s Congresswoman Liz Chaney, Michigan’s Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Arizona’s House Speaker “Rusty” Bowers, and Fulton County elections worker Wandrea “Shaye” Moss.
Schlossberg, when interviewed, emphasized: “I think the issue of defending democracy is so important this year, which is why we chose five winners, not one.” There are Democrats and Republicans on the list, all of whom who “put country before party” to defend democracy.
In addition to Zelensky, the four American nominees all played a part in standing by the results of the 2020 election. Chaney broke with most of her party, urged fidelity to the Constitution,” voting to impeach President Trump. Benson refused “to back down from fulfilling the duties of her office, even as threats and harassment from then-President Trump and his allies grew increasingly aggressive.” Bowers, a pro-Trump Republican, “resisted intense pressure from Trump and Rudy Giuliani and refused to go along with an illegal scheme to replace Arizona’s legal slate of electors with a false slate of electors who would elect Trump. And Moss, despite being targeted by Trump and his followers with death threats, continues to work in Georgia’s Fulton County Department of Elections, “doing the hard work.”
When Schlossberg was asked what his grandfather John F. Kennedy would think of politics in 2020, he replied, “It’s always been tough, but I think he would
be very optimistic, as I am today. People tried to overturn the election in 2020, but they weren’t successful. People are attacking democracy all the time, but there are people with integrity, like these winners, who are standing up and defending democracy.”
Final word: Are you willing to vote for those candidates who are willing to stand up and defend our democracy? Or will it be the same old, same old, those who put party before country, state, county, and municipality?
Bernard Rabik, a Hopewell Township attorney, is a columnist for The Times.
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