The U.S. senator and onetime prisoner of war 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.”
This definition conjures up an image of the lone hero who—instinctively, spontaneously, and against all odds—suddenly takes charge and stands up for virtue. Courage is often that.
As I wrote in the Harvard Business Review, however, courage is more often a considered calculation. It is a skill developed and applied by exceptional people to protect what they, and often those they represent, hold dear. It is a vehicle of virtue that can’t be driven by the faint of heart.
Today we’ll likely watch as U.S. congressional representatives and senators ignore this kind of courage. Those who do so will put in jeopardy democracy as we’ve known it. They’ll demonstrate their fealty, not to the U.S. Constitution which they took an oath to protect, but to a man, a cult of heinous personality, who has repeatedly demonstrated that in his mind the only “virtue” is loyalty to Donald Trump. These people will squander their precious option to lead with honor, to be courageous, and replace it with dangerous obsequiousness and selfishness.
We will see, too, if a vice president who has given Donald Trump his utmost loyalty, enabling nefarious narcissism at every turn, will defile the office of vice president. Will Mike Pence call into question Electoral College vote tallies – attempting to overturn the will of the people and keep President Trump and himself in office? If so, we’ll witness, like the rarest of comets passing precariously close to earth, a violation of high oath and office, the antithesis of courage, and a clear profile in cowardice.
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