Nuremberg Nazis Death Penalty

The public is aware that majority of politicians focus remotely on being re-elected by being concerned on winning votes rather than shaping future policies, and helping run the government. True political courage is the act of a person that will add awareness to what is right rather than public opinion, setting aside votes, and fear of backlash.

Our mindset as well as the true meaning of political courage has squwed due to the fact that competition towards the publics approval has obscured acts of political courage which in fact is frowned upon in some cases. Senators are human beings too and our human nature is to seek approval and to be recognized by the public. “We prefer praise to abuse, popularity to contempt.” In other words, we would rather support ideas and actions that majority of people have taken to follow the status quo than actually pursue our real thoughts and course of action because it deemed unpopular.

We tend to ignore our true meaning so we won't endure backlash from those around us, if we give in to the popular opinion we as a society we cannot move forward. If the politician act of political courage has no support from their own party and their followers or supports the opposing party it can result in major conflict, contradicting themselves, and halt further acts of political courage. For example, “We have criticized those who have followed the crowd and at the same time criticized those who defied it.” As a member of the public and not a politician, I can say that the people cannot fully understand the responsibility of Senators and the difficulty it must be to compromise to satisfy the public as a whole.

All in all political courage is the action of breaking popular opinion because it is the right thing to do and using a unique independent course and setting aside desires of an individual as well as a group or political party to add awareness of the problem in the status quo. The following men have brought light to the overshadowed meaning of political courage. He is known as “Mr. Republican” the reason why I choose him was because on more than on occasion he chose to speak out in defense of a topic no politician with his ambitions would have coming from a Republican. Robert A. Taft is described as man who “Was known in the Senate who never broke an agreement, who never compromised his deep felt Republican principles, who never practiced political deception.”

Even though his actions did not change history it was courageous because he spoke out when no other Republican did so, due to the fact that it was the right thing to do. In October 0f 1946, Taft who was known to speak his mind would have guarded his tongue during this time because of how drastic this issue was, refusing to keep silent on this issue proved that he stood by his morals and The Constitution. During this time the United States Supreme Court was deciding on a life in prison or death penalty for ten Nuremberg Nazis. Taft endured a large amount of hatred from the public since the death penalty was expected for people like Nazis.

In life we have multiple viewpoints, and I Believe that Taft’s course of action was to influence the public to not seek vengeance by responding to hate with more hate. Taft does in fact exemplify political courage because in a tough situation like the presidential election, he decided to stick to his morals and his beliefs as a Republican to stand by the United States Constitution and be a spokesperson not to Americans, but our enemies . The governments shall not have the right to pick and choose which laws to enforce especially in a dilemma such as Nuremberg Nazis. He risked, and lost the election but continued to be respected among other political faces.

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