I believe that her political courage matches the courage of the eight people celebrated in Kennedy’s “Profiles in Courage.” In particular, her decision to serve on the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. In her case, this retaliation resulted in her being ousted from a leadership position in the Republican Party.Īlthough I disagree with Cheney on many issues, I admire her unwavering dedication to our constitutional democracy. Like Houston, Cheney has experienced political retaliation for standing up for the Constitution and our system of government. That’s when I remembered the name of Cheney’s political doppelganger - Sam Houston of Texas. So I bought a new copy (having lost my other) and started rereading it. I trace my admiration of people who show political courage back to that book.Īs I watched the hearings, I had a gnawing sense that Cheney’s story of political courage parallels that of one of the people in Kennedy’s book, but couldn’t remember which one. Still, the book has stuck with me all of these years. I enjoyed reading it, but as a 17-year-old I didn’t fully understand the historical contexts for some of the people Kennedy profiled. My father thought Kennedy’s book might appeal to me since I had taken an interest in politics, and he was right.

Capitol, I flashed back 50 years to the day my father gave me a copy of John F. While watching Congresswoman Liz Cheney so masterfully perform her role as the vice chair for the House committee investigating the Jan.

6, 2021 attack on the Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington on June 16, 2022. Each chapter from the book is summarized below.Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., listens as the House select committee investigating the Jan. Ross, Lucius Lamar, George Norris, and Robert A. The subjects of Profiles in Courage are John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Thomas Hart Benton, Sam Houston, Edmund G. His own battles with physical pain and his experiences in World War II as a PT boat commander also gave him inspiration. The project resulted in the publication of Profiles in Courage, which focuses on the careers of eight senators whom Kennedy felt had shown great courage under enormous pressure from their parties and their constituents. When Kennedy took a leave of absence from the Senate in 1954 to recover from back surgery, it gave him the opportunity to study the topic of political courage. Kennedy’s election to the House in 1946 and the Senate in 1952 gave him personal experience in dealing with the conflicting pressures that legislators face. The thesis, later published as Why England Slept, was a study of the failure of British political leaders in the 1930s to oppose popular resistance to rearming, leaving the country ill-prepared for World War II. Kennedy had long been interested in the topic of political courage, beginning with his senior thesis at Harvard.

Profiles and courage jfk