Political Courage Is Near Extinct

Joe Klein: “I saw the real thing for the first time on the night of April 4, 1968, when riots broke out across the country after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Sen. Robert Kennedy decided to go into the heart of the Indianapolis ghetto-he was running for President at the time-and talk to the people. His aides and the local police pleaded with him not to do it. He was putting his life in danger, but he believed he had a responsibility to show up. He spoke for only five minutes, without a text… and he calmed the crowd by quoting Aeschylus about the experience of excruciating pain that leads to deeper wisdom. Indianapolis was one of the few major cities that remained quiet that night.”

“Nowadays politicians are swaddled by their media consultants, who determine whether it is ‘safe’ to be ‘courageous.’ But acts of courage don’t come with a money-back guarantee. They are courageous because they’re potentially dangerous or, more likely, embarrassing. Courage’s reward comes subtly, in the form of trust as the public learns that a politician is willing to take risks to tell the truth. Obama is currently wandering about the country, trying to meet average people, but the choreography is more stringent than the Bolshoi’s. He said he didn’t want to go to the border because it would only be a ‘photo op’ … on the same day his office published a photo of the President and Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper shooting pool. Who choreographed that?”