political courage

Growing up, my favorite verse was found in the book of Joshua- “Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and courageous, do not fear nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you will go.”  I was flying home after conducting a training in Spokane, WA two weekends ago and as is my habit, I stopped at an airport bookstore to buy something new to read on the flight back.  I ended up choosing several- much to my accountant-of-a-husband’s dismay- and included in my selections was Jenny Sanford’s “Staying True.”

You remember Jenny?  Wife of Mark Sanford?  Governor of South Carolina turned lover of Argentina?  I trust no further details are needed.  In her book, she talks a lot of principles and courage.  One particular line in the book struck me, when she was speaking of Mark’s strict adherence to conservative principles, a fidelity that ended up playing a role in his own personal moral failings.  It’s been echoing in my head ever since as I’m talking with candidates around the state, running for local, state or federal positions.

It takes courage to run for office.  Courage is necessary to stand for conservative principles once elected.  But courage is also needed to keep feet solidly on the ground and a head firmly in the race- it is very easy to become addicted to the limelight and the fawning that can accompany a candidate, which only becomes more of a temptation once the election is won.  We talk a lot about principles at American Majority- yet as important as those principles are, so too is courage important.

Political courage then is not only knowing the right thing to do, and doing it, but also remembering that being a leader is a privilege, not a right; that power can corrupt even those with the most noble intentions; that sometimes the most courageous thing one can do is voluntarily step down.  I’ve seen candidates who professed dedication to conservative principles as their impetus for running race after race, soaking up time, energy, attention and money from other campaigns; secretly, I’ve always wondered if it was less their principles and more that they wouldn’t know what to do with themselves if they stopped being elected.  Our founders designed citizen legislatures because they wanted a government “of the people”- a key characteristic of a citizen legislature is that individuals serve for a period of time and then go back to their old jobs, old clothes, old lives.  True courage was displayed when George Washington chose not to run again for President, insisting instead that it was someone else’s turn.  Turns out, that wasn’t such a bad idea.

Candidates running for office should be wedded fully to the principles of freedom- absolutely.  But I hope too that they stop to survey the world around them every now and then, and consider whether perhaps someone else could do the job just as well as they could.  Then perhaps we will have fewer candidates or elected officials whose personal lives become sacrificed on the altar of politics and more individual citizens taking part in the legislative process.

Be strong and courageous.