Profile in Courage

In his 1956 book Profiles in Courage, then-Senator John F Kennedy wrote about eight  United States senators who defied the opinions of their party and their constituents to do what they felt was right – and, as a result,  suffered severe criticism and losses in popularity.

Fast forward to 2021. Five Republican Senators have won praise for breaking with their party by voting that Trump should be tried in the Senate, because he caused an insurrection that killed five people and trashed the Capitol – and eleven House members have been praised for their bravery in voting to strip a fellow Republican of her committee assignments, because, among other things, she advocated shooting the Speaker of the House. Both of these are actions that could only be construed as courageous when the bar is set by people such as Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader pictured above, whose only standard seems to be to favor anything that serves his ambition for power.

On the other hand, the courage exhibited by Aleksei Navalny, also shown above,  both exceeds that of any of the Senators JFK profiled and demonstrates the fallacy of Trump supporters, who wish (and in  many cases still think) that he had won a second term.

First, the profile in courage.  Aleksei Navalny, a Russian opposition leader, has for a long time been the greatest threat to Vladimir Putin’s virtual dictatorship in Russia’s illiberal democracy. In 2016 Navalny announced his candidacy for the 2018 Russian election, but was barred from running because of a political technicality that was clearly contrived by Putin.  Of course, Putin won that election and then,  last year, tried to have Navalny assassinated while he was travelling, by having men follow him, sneak into his hotel room and smear chemical weapons in his underpants before he embarked on a flight, during  which he became extremely ill and had to be carried off in a coma. After a long recovery in Germany, Navalny voluntarily returned to Russia, knowing that he would be arrested there because of phony charges which he had been fighting for several years. (He was also charged with failing to report for parole during the period when he was still in a coma.)

Navalny could have stayed in exile in Germany, but elected to return to Moscow, in order to continue his fight to restore some element of democracy to his home country, After his arrest, immediately on arrival, he demonstrated extraordinary bravery by making the most damning statement in front of the judge, during his trial, exposing and excoriating Vladimir Putin (he said Putin would be remembered as  “Vladimir the Poisoner of Underpants”), regardless of the consequences to him  – and he is now beginning to serve a three year prison term.

While, given Putin’s apparent lock on power, it seems highly unlikely that there will be any short-term results from his actions, Navalny’s courage has stirred up the most extensive demonstrations ever against the Putin regime throughout Russia. Only time will tell what the longer term results will be – and what role Navalny might continue to play.

Second, closer to home, the Navalny saga should be an object lesson for the Republicans who were not concerned that a second Trump term would have severely damaged or destroyed American democracy. The fact that Navalny has had to be so courageous in order to try to bring a semblance of democracy back to Russia should show them how fragile democracy is – and that that their submission to the Cult of Trump – putting staying in power above all else – could have started the erosion of democracy here. Putin’s rise to power in Russia led to his transforming an emerging democracy into a dictatorship and, while American democracy is much stronger than the democracy that was emerging in Russia, it is still fragile and was teetering on November 3^rd 2020. It would have begun to break if Trump had won a second term – and still could, if he were to run for – and win – a second term in 2024.

If, as expected, the Senate impeachment trial fails to convict Trump (on the grounds that the trial is unconstitutional because he is no longer president, not on the grounds  that he is not guilty), the Senate will be unable to bar him from running again. Perhaps, however, the evidence presented at the trial will convince enough republicans that he should never again be president – and that, in Winston Churchill’s words “Democracy is the worst possible system of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time”. We have to hope that this will be so, because, in today’s divisive political climate, we certainly can’t count on any profiles in courage to save American democracy.