Courage is rare in Trump’s Washington

Moments of conscience and independence are becoming fewer, Andrew Cohen writes.

Every year, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation honours a public figure for taking a position of conscience in the face of personal or professional risk.

It is called the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, evoking Kennedy’s celebrated chronicle of eight senators who embraced causes or positions that were against their interest. They chose principle over power, sometimes at their peril.

One of the award winners was Gerald Ford, who, in his first month as president in 1974, pardoned Richard Nixon for his offences during Watergate. Nixon had faced prosecution as a private citizen; Ford thought that would be bad for a country after years of division.

So he exonerated Nixon before he was tried, which many called a mistake. In 1976, Ford paid the price: he lost the presidential election to Jimmy Carter.

This year the winner is Mitch Landrieu, former mayor of New Orleans. Landrieu is saluted for his courageous decision in 2017 to remove four statues in the city celebrating icons of the Confederacy, including Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. The statues had stood for decades, an enduring affront to its black residents, a reminder of the legacy of slavery, segregation and white supremacy.

Landrieu was troubled by the statues. In a city that was once a slave market, he decided it was time to act. One night, under cover of darkness, he did.

In Louisiana, where the Confederacy is still orthodoxy to many whites, he was pilloried. Critics threatened legal action. They made personal threats. Landrieu was unfazed.

You could argue that Landrieu was not really that courageous in a city with an African-

Who else, today, in the United States, would be worthy of this award?

-American majority. Or that Landrieu was not running for a third term. (His successor took office last week.)

All true. Yet Landrieu’s moment of conscience, in a country that shows less and less of it, was an act of independence. And it makes us wonder: Who else, today, in the United States, would be worthy of this award?

There are some: Sen. John McCain (who has already won it,) and his colleague, Jeff Flake. Both have stood up to Donald Trump. Sen. Bob Corker has, too. All are Republicans who have come in for intense criticism, which may be why Flake and Corker are not running again. McCain, battling brain cancer, says this term will be his last.

Who else? Bob Mueller continues as special counsel despite threats from Trump. James Comey refused to remain quiet when he was fired. Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, remains unshaken by Trump’s Twitter storms.

(The real test for the Department of Justice will be if Trump tries to fire Mueller. When Nixon tried to fire Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor, both the attorney general and his deputy resigned, rather than obey his order).

Courage? The high school students from Florida who champion gun control in the midst of vicious personal attacks from conservatives.

In Washington, a city under occupation from ignorance and avarice, there are few figures of courage. Paul Ryan leads the “Vichy Republicans.” He joins the circle of Trump’s willing accomplices, which includes all members of cabinet, who soil themselves in praise of the president. Of these, the greatest apple-polisher is Mike Pence.

For profiles in cowardice, we can include Steve Mnuchin, who remained silent, last summer, during the racial clashes in Charlottesville. As a Jew, he had particular reason to object. And Rex Tillerson, who gave a speech the other day lamenting what’s wrong in Washington but never mentioned Trump.

And John Kelly, the chief of staff, who has lost his internal fortitude.

In today’s Washington, courage fades like a soft summer mist. No wonder Democrats hope that Mitch Landrieu runs for president. Andrew Cohen is a journalist, professor and author of Two Days in June: John F. Kennedy and the 48 Hours That Made History.