Courage vs. Subservience – Liz Cheney and Elise Stefanik

Representative Liz Cheney made a choice yesterday and she did it alone. There was no pandering to power, no one standing by her side at the podium. She took what I wrote about in my Harvard Business Review article “Courage as a Skill” – a spear-in-the-sand move.

Spear-in-the-sand situations require that you weigh your belief in a cause against the risks involved. Such situations are rare: They occur when negotiation is difficult or impossible, open minds are hard to find, and doing nothing is simply not an option.

John McCain defined courage as a brief, singular occurrence: “that rare moment of unity between conscience, fear, and action, when something deep within us strikes the flint of love, of honor, of duty, to make the spark that fires our resolve.” Courage is rarely, however, a moment in time when without forethought a lone hero stands up for virtue. More often it is a calculation – a courage calculation.

Among six components of the courage calculation is one of addressing what matters most. If you do not act, for example, will you be able to look at yourself in the mirror? Does the situation call for immediate, high-profile action or something more nuanced? Courage is not about squandering political capital on low priority issues. It is often about reaching deep within ourselves under career-threatening circumstances, discovering what matters, revisiting what we’ve pledged to do for the betterment of something beyond self and refusing to back down.

Whether Republican, Democrat or Independent, if you don’t see what Liz Cheney said and did yesterday as courage, you don’t understand the concept. She put democracy and the U.S. Constitution before fealty to one man, Donald Trump. She stood firm as the mantle of leadership was about to be taken from her by the likes of Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise to be given to a person who kissed the ring and was launched into stardom.

Representative Elise Stefanik publicly hitched her wagon to the cult of personality that is the current Republican Party. And while she will be suddenly risen high in one way, she has willingly been brought low in another. Here is a young woman with promise in several ways, who, it appears, took a short cut to the top. Will Trump let her stay? Only if she does not disappoint, does not grow. There’s a reason why so many cowards fear Donald Trump. He is vengeful. And no one is safe for long.

What is democracy without courage? We are learning. It is damaged and in peril. As such, those who have forgotten the travesties of the past brought on by obsequiousness to one man, or who simply don’t care, see their chance.

Liz Cheney stood up to them. Were she and I to sit down for lunch one day, we would have differences. But I know courage when I see it. I know, too, what it feels like to have people take what you’ve worked so hard to achieve merely to advance their own agenda. Standing up to such people is never easy. It is, however, what those among us must do to protect what is precious, to create a bridge over troubled times when virtue is drowning. She did these things yesterday, nearly alone, and ultimately she did them for us.