On Sunday, former President Barack Obama was handed the “Profiles in Courage” award by the John F. Kennedy Library – always an awkward experience, since Kennedy didn’t actually write Profiles in Courage (it was ghostwritten by Ted Sorenson). In his acceptance speech, Obama paid homage to a man who drove a lady off a bridge to her death, Teddy Kennedy, then launched into a rant about political courage, with special reference to Congress: “I hope they understand that courage means not simply doing what’s politically expedient, doing what, deep in our hearts, we know is right.” He then added that he hopes Congresspeople “recognize it takes little courage to aid those who are already powerful, already comfortable, already influential — but it takes some courage to champion the vulnerable and the sick and the infirm, those who often have no access to the corridors of power.”
This is absolute self-flattering poppycock.
It never takes courage to say the most heart-warming thing, and then claim credit for being warm-hearted. It takes political courage to tell people hard truths: truths like the basic notion that they are responsible for their own health care, unless they are utterly unable to procure some and have never had the opportunity to do so; truths like the idea that terrific healthcare can only be made widely available through free markets, or through massive government mandates (see Switzerland).
In fact, it takes no courage whatsoever to “champion the vulnerable and the sick and the infirm” – that’s political dynamite. Everybody does it. Nobody has ever been ousted from office for the sin of speaking up too much on behalf of the downtrodden. Every demagogue in history has done it.
Everybody claims to speak on behalf of the victim; few speak on behalf of reality. It’s easy to portray yourself as an advocate for those in need; it’s difficult to actually tell those in need that the best possible solution may not be a check in their pocket. That’s why the Bible explicitly tells judges that they may not show partiality to the poor or the great – truth does not change based on victim status.
True political courage lies in telling people what they may not want to hear, but must learn. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), for example, performed an act of political courage when he ran for the presidency in Iowa by telling Iowans that he would not support subsidies for the ethanol boondoggle; it was an act of political cowardice that led Donald Trump to embrace such subsidies, then rip Cruz as someone heartless. Courage is about saying the unpopular but true thing. Upholding Obamacare — shouting from the rooftops about a “right” to healthcare while premiums skyrocket, insurers drop out, and you continue shouting to soak the rich – is political cowardice.
But leftism is built on political cowardice. So too, these days, is the faux conservative of the masquerading Republican Party.
Source: The Daily Wire
