COURAGE CAN SAVE US

A call to elevate moral courage as a prime value in national politics.

Barcott, a Marine Corps veteran and social entrepreneur, profiles 10 leaders in his book: 9 are military veterans, and one is a former FBI agent who played a role in the Iraq War; two are governors, and the rest have served in Congress. Five are Democrats, and five are Republicans. All share a background that called upon personal stores of physical courage, including flying jets through enemy fire over Iraq, surviving injuries from an incendiary explosive device in Afghanistan, or doing multiple tours in both countries. And, according to Barcott, co-founder with David Gergen and Peter Dixon of the “cross-partisan” political recruitment group With Honor, all share three characteristics necessary for turning around the nation’s impossibly partisan politics: courage, commitment, and integrity. Barcott makes his argument by presenting mini-biographies of each subject. He looks at their parentage, childhoods, and the key events and influences leading to their service, as well as their political careers, with a sharp focus on issues that distinguish them from the career politicians they find themselves in conflict with, including those from their own party. The approach could have bored readers with repetitive or formulaic chapters; instead, the author’s accounts highlight the warts-and-all humanity of his subjects. Readers can’t help but admire these “mavericks”—for the strength they summon against pressure from peers (and media figures and constituents) who put party first and prolong congressional dysfunction. “The other day I asked a chairman to stop referring to [a conversation about energy policy] as a war,” Jared Golden, Democrat of Maine, tells the author. “Someone else compared something to a fatwa. I was like, ‘you sound militant, but we’re talking about energy policy. Listen to your damn selves.’”

A refreshingly constructive view of what Congress could be.