In 1954-55, when he was a U.S. senator, John F. Kennedy wrote his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Profiles In Courage.” In it he described eight courageous patriotic Americans; people who stood out because they championed what is best for America regardless of possible negative consequences to their political future.
Now, more than 60 years later, those in power have abandoned the concept of such courage and patriotism and are determined to stifle any opposition to their power-grabbing. Author Jack Carr writes, “We have reached a point where the power of the federal government is such that they can essentially target anyone of their choosing. Recently, several allegations that government agencies may have targeted political opponents should alarm all Americans, regardless of party affiliation.”
During the years of World War II, reports revealed that the Nazi regime had the Gestapo raid the homes of people they thought were a threat to them. At the time I remember people saying, “That could never happen here.” Unfortunately, it has happened here several times, with the most recent being the unprecedented illegitimate raid and ransacking of a former president’s home when he wasn’t there. Some materials taken were personal, thus in violation of the Fourth Amendment.
Other such raids include the one on Roger Stone’s home on Jan. 26, 2019, when 29 heavily armed FBI agents burst into Stone’s house at 6 a.m., woke him up and arrested him. Why were such heavy-handed tactics used on a person in his late 60s who was clearly not a dangerous threat?
Unprecedented seems to be the theme of the left’s behavior. Two sloppy and baseless impeachment attempts were an unprecedented abuse of the Constitution’s impeachment clause, thereby demeaning it and lowering the standards for impeachment. The Jan. 6 Committee is an unprecedented kangaroo court failing to follow protocol by not including a fair number of both parties. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi got away with barring Republican representatives she didn’t want.
The important ingredient glaringly missing from those abuses of power and others is courage. Where was the courage in the disgraceful behavior of the left during the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination hearings? Did they have the courage later to apologize to the Kavanaugh family for putting them through hell with false allegations? Was Pelosi being courageous when she tore up President Trump’s State of the Union address? Was she aware of the fact that she was attacking the presidency and not the president? Why wasn’t she censured?
Was Adam Schiff showing courage when he claimed he had solid evidence of Trump’s “collusion” with the Russians but wouldn’t produce it while under oath? Was Hillary Clinton showing courage when she kept an illegal server in her home with highly sensitive information on it; or when she deleted 30,000 emails and destroyed several of her cellphones? In addition, she financed the Steele dossier fraudulently obtained from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which led to a warrant allowing the FBI to spy on Trump’s campaign. The FBI admitted later that the dossier was unverifiable.
Has President Biden been courageous when he hasn’t made even one trip to our southern border? Yet, he and his administration blatantly assert a huge lie: ‘The border is secure,” thereby showing complete disregard for the crisis of thousands of Americans killed by fentanyl that crosses the border daily as well as other crises of guns, terrorists and human trafficking.
Was there any courage shown in the behavior of much of the news media, along with the FBI and Facebook, when they covered up disclosure of Hunter Biden’s incriminating laptop prior to the 2020 election, thereby tipping the scale in that election?
If the present administration doesn’t want any news covered the gutless news media caves and doesn’t cover it. Although the deep state has infiltrated much of the media, hopefully there are some members who have the integrity and courage to step up and make it clear that they will no longer be the lap dog. Maybe even one of them will write a Pulitzer Prize-winning “Profiles in Corruption.”
Bob Couch lives in Easthampton.