Since Donald Trump returned to power Jan. 20, I have watched people and institutions cave to demands of the president. Are we witnessing a growing tribe of neo-cowards? Has cowardice become a political necessity?
As the Master of Wakefield asked, “Are we all hand-tamed by these gentry?”
What has happened to American moral courage? My childhood education brimmed with stories of men and women whose lives were the definition of courage. From the battlefield to the courthouse, from the campus to the church, from the cities to the hills, Americans were a people of courage.
It’s sickening to see politicians, judges, media outlets, universities, law firms and tech companies bending the knee. When clashes between truth and power occur, there are always those who bow the knee in cowardly ways to status quo power. At this intersection, there’s always the opportunity for extraordinary acts of courage by God’s people. In the words of Flannery O’Connor, I see courage as “the action of grace in territory held largely by the devil.”
President Trump, a master of turning political power brokers into clay-feet figurines, seems to have outlawed courage. Someone needs to tell Trump an American administration without courage will unravel.
A look back at courage, American style
I picked up my old copy of John F. Kennedy’s enduring classic, Profiles in Courage, for a moment of encouragement. The book resounds with timeless lessons on the most cherished of virtues — courage and patriotism — and remains a moving, powerful and relevant testament to the indomitable American spirit. Kennedy profiled eight American patriots. At crucial moments in our nation’s history, they revealed backbones of steel as they ignored the consequences to their public and private lives to do what they knew was right.
Of particular interest to our current state of an endangered democracy, Kennedy’s profile of Daniel Webster stands out. Webster preferred to risk his career and his reputation rather than risk the Union. On March 7, 1850, he said: “Mr. President, I wish to speak today, not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an American and a member of the Senate of the United States. … I speak today for the preservation of the Union. Hear me for my cause.”
Courage requires risking name, reputation, fortune, money, status and profession.
Webster abandoned his own place in the history and hearts of his countrymen and abandoned his last chance for the goal that had eluded him for more than 20 years — the presidency.
Courage requires risking name, reputation, fortune, money, status and profession.
The current cowardice of our time
My biblical imagination conjured the vision of Ezekiel and an analogical connection with our spate of cowardice on display among people and places previously known as powerful.
To paraphrase Ezekiel 37:1-3: “The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley;” it was full of cowards. He said to me, “Mortal, can these cowards have courage again?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.”
In more secular terms, there are institutions and people in the United States who have “lost their starch.” I’m hopeful they will be getting it back directly. For example …
Congress leads the way
The cowards in our midst include almost the entire collection of Republican senators and representatives. A handful of Republicans have been willing to vote against President Trump on one issue or another.
In Trump’s first term, there were Republicans with the courage to oppose Trump and his policies. Seven Republican senators voted to impeach Trump — Lisa Murkowski, Alaska; Richard Burr, N.C.; Bill Cassidy, La.; Susan Collins, Mass.; Mitt Romney, Utah; Ben Sasse, Neb.; and Pat Toomey, Pa. Now, Burr, Sasse, Romney and Toomey no longer are in the Senate, and Collins and Cassidy face difficult primary challenges in 2026.
A few Republican leaders publicly announced their opposition to a Trump bill, but like the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz, when faced with the power of the wizard, they shook and trembled and voted “yes.” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, for example, announced his support for releasing the Epstein Files. After a conversation with President Trump, he changed his tune and said, “We need to give the president some space.”
Cassidy announced his opposition to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. But already saddled with a vote to impeach Trump, Cassidy crumbled and voted to confirm an anti-vaxxer as America’s chief health officer.
We are witnessing acts of pure cowardice, of American political leaders scared of the wrath of President Trump and MAGA.
We are witnessing acts of pure cowardice, of American political leaders scared of the wrath of President Trump and MAGA.
Law firms
Leading law firms also have caved to Trump’s demands. Paul Weiss was the first law firm to capitulate to Trump.
The firm agreed to give Trump $40 million in free legal work to causes the president supports and to end its diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Five other major law firms followed suit and made concessions to Trump — Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, A&O Shearman and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft contributed $600 million through agreements.
Media corporations
Joining major law firms on the journey to the Valley of Cowards are major media conglomerates. ABC News settled a defamation suit brought by Trump, agreeing to donate $15 million to his presidential library and to issue a statement saying it regretted comments about Trump made by anchor George Stephanopolous. CBS settled a lawsuit with Trump for $16 million and canceled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The network claimed the cancellation of Colbert was strictly a financial decision.
Universities
Stunningly, some of the country’s oldest, wealthiest and most enduring institutions have swiftly folded to Trump, who is acting on longstanding conservative criticisms of universities as elitist and progressive. In the path of the Trump administration’s threats — and with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake — schools are being tested on how their values, jobs and research stand up to today’s political realities.
Columbia University agreed to a $200 million settlement. Some have indicated Columbia was engaged in good negotiation. Columbia presented a solid balancing act with a strategy of cooperation. Or was this another case of caving in to the Trump administration? Did Columbia raise the yellow flag of cowardice and join other institutions in the Valley of Cowards?
The University of California’s board moved to cut diversity statements from recruitment requirements. Dartmouth College announced it had hired the Republican National Committee’s former chief counsel — an outspoken critic of birthright citizenship — as the college’s top lawyer and leader of its immigration office. And dozens of universities rushed to scrub diversity, equity and inclusion policies from their websites and to cancel related events.
The University of Maine agreed it will not allow “men to participate in individual or team contact sports with females” to win back $30 million in Agriculture Department funding.
The only remaining question is how many new residents will move to the Valley of Cowards? In Ezekiel’s vision “there were very many,” and that appears to be where we are heading. The Valley of Cowards may become the fastest growing community in America.
In our current malaise where lies pass for truth, people and institutions need to step up to propose a counter-truth to the exercise of authoritarian political power.
I suggest the most likely candidates are our pastors and churches. As men and women called by God to speak truth to power, courage belongs to the essence of our being. Like Moses, we can choose to “share ill-treatment with the people of God (rather) than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin” (Hebrews 11:25).
God has not yet asked his truth-tellers to conquer kingdoms, shut the mouths of lions, quench the power of fire, escape the edge of the sword or put foreign armies to flight. But we are called to speak the truth and stand for justice for all.
This is our moment to be God’s courageous ones.
