Photograph Source: Dan Scavino – Public Domain
Are you keeping lists? Years from now, when the dust settles on this Trumpian insanity, historians will look back upon this Archimedean tipping point and show specific moments where certain individuals could have changed the course of history. Counterfactual social psychologists will analyse this historic moment by asking: What if enough Republican senators had voted not to confirm most of Trump’s nominees? What if enough civil servants decided to resign to shut down the entire government in solidarity with those let go or given unacceptable marching orders? Before historians and counterfactual experts start their work, now is an appropriate moment to begin keeping lists of profiles in cowardice as well as noting the rare profiles in courage.
The term profiles in courage comes from Senator John F. Kennedy and Ted Sorenson’s 1956 Profiles in Courage, eight narratives of senators’ bravery in going against the tide while risking their careers. The book begins: “This is a book about that most admirable of human virtues – courage.” Most relevant today, the book recognizes different kinds of pressures exerted on members of the “world’s most exclusive club.” Trump’s MAGA threats to the GOP senators is nothing new.
Each of the eight senators highlighted made decisions that went against his party’s position; each senator made a decision that put his political future in jeopardy. As the authors note about each of the senator’s bravery;
“To be courageous, these stories make clear, requires no exceptional qualifications, no magic formula, no special combination of time, place and circumstance. It is an opportunity that sooner or later is presented to us all. Politics merely furnishes one arena which imposes special tests of courage.”
One example of the courage described is George W. Norris a Midwestern Republican from Nebraska. At the turn of the 20th century, Morris chose “between conscience and constituents,” “between principles and popularity.” In the House, Norris was able to change the precedent that the Speaker could appoint members of the Rules Committee instead of the House itself, overruling the power of the House “Czar” Joe Cannon. Norris once declared; “I would rather go down to my political grave with a clear conscience than ride in a chariot of victory as a Congressional stool pigeon, the slave, the servant, or the vassal of any man, whether he be the owner and manager of a legislative menagerie or the ruler of a great nation…”
In the Senate, Norris filibustered the U.S.’s entry into WWI. He was condemned as “treasonable and reprehensible” as well as compared to Benedict Arnold. He offered to participate in a special election to see if the people of Nebraska would still support him. As he told a crowd; “Even though you say I am wrong, even though you feel sure I should have stood by the President, has the time come when we can’t even express our opinions in the Senate…without being branded by the moneyed interests as traitors?” In the Senate, he became “the nation’s most outspoken advocate of public power…” He even switched party, believing that progressives had no choice but to support Al Smith. As Kennedy/Sorenson wrote; “A democracy that has no George Norris to point to – no monument of individual conscience in a sea of popular rule – is not worthy to bear the name.”
But what about profiles in cowardice? Frank Bruni excoriates Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine in The New York Times. As opposed to the young senator and his ghost writer’s presentation of political courage, listen to Bruni on Collins’ positive votes on all of Trump’s nominees except Pete Hegseth: “Collins is a coward. Worse yet, she’s a bellwether. Make that a church bell, the kind that tolls when there’s a death. In this case, it marks the passing of any independence, any dignity, any scruples among Republicans in the Senate, who are letting President Trump have whomever he wants and seem poised to let him do whatever he pleases because it’s the easy path, the one that protects them from his rancor and retribution.”
It is certainly ironic that Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, former leader of the Senate GOP, was the only Republican senator standing up to Trump. He opposed the nominations of Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Pete Hegseth. “The Senate’s power of advice and consent is not an option; it is an obligation, and one we cannot pretend to misunderstand,” McConnell said in a statement opposing Gabbard. “When a nominee’s record proves them unworthy of the highest public trust, and when their command of relevant policy falls short of the requirements of their office, the Senate should withhold its consent.” A worthwhile statement; but for all his actions while Majority Leader, the Senator from Kentucky does not merit being on a profiles in courage list.
Are there possible profiles in courage today outside the Senate? There are very few examples. An outstanding signal of resistance came from the district attorney’s office in New York. The Justice Department’s acting deputy attorney general, Emil Bove III, instructed prosecutors to dismiss corruption charges against New York City’s Mayor Eric Adams, accused last year on five counts, including bribery, fraud and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations. Danielle Sassoon, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, refused to carry out the order, sending her own letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi explaining her reasons. Sassoon resignation was followed by at least six other prosecutors in New York and Washington
The surprise move by Sassoon, a Federalist Society member and former clerk to conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, is just the kind of resistance we need today. “It is a breathtaking and dangerous precedent to reward Adams’s opportunistic and shifting commitments on immigration and other policy matters with dismissal of a criminal indictment,” Sassoon wrote. “I have always considered it my obligation to pursue justice impartially,” she added in her letter to Bove, as described by Eric Lach in a detailed analysis in The New Yorker.
There have been other publicized acts of resistance. Several members of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ Board resigned when Trump announced he would install himself as Chair after ousting 18 Board members. Several prominent artists have cancelled performances. “Unfortunately, due to what I believe to be an infringement on the values of an institution that has faithfully celebrated artists of all backgrounds through all mediums, I’ve decided to cancel my appearance at this venue,” wrote the actress and writer Issa Rae on Instagram in announcing the cancellation of her show next month,
Keeping lists of cowardice and courage may not be enough to change what is happening today. But rereading Kennedy and Sorenson is a helpful reminder of how individuals in the Senate made courageous choices. One can only hope that decision makers will read the book. In the least, Susan Collins should be required to wear a Hester Prynne scarlet letter C for cowardice.
