It’s Not Left vs. Right: Why Moral Courage Matters More Than Political Teams
The Problem With Picking a Team Over Picking What’s Right
I want to talk about something that has nothing to do with stock tickers or interest rates today, but everything to do with the foundation this country needs to function. I had the privilege of hearing a remarkable homily recently, and one line stuck with me hard: two things can be true at the same time.
Think about that for a second. The founders of this country owned slaves. That was wrong. Full stop. They also risked everything, their wealth, their lives, their families, to build something the world had never seen before. Both of those things are true simultaneously. But try saying that out loud in today’s climate and watch people’s heads explode. The left wants to tear everything down. The right wants to canonize every historical figure. Neither side can sit with the complexity of truth.
What Plessy v. Ferguson Teaches Us About Expedience
The homily referenced what I’d argue is the worst Supreme Court decision in American history. Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896. A seven to one ruling that enshrined “separate but equal” as the law of the land. That decision held for nearly sixty years until Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.
Here’s what gets me. These were Supreme Court justices. They weren’t ignorant men. They knew. The seven who voted in favor of that ruling knew what they were doing was wrong. They did what was most expedient at the time. They took the shortcut. And that shortcut caused generations of suffering.
The one man who had the courage to dissent was John Marshall Harlan. One voice. One man willing to be on the wrong side of a seven to one decision because he knew it was the right thing to do.
That takes something most people simply don’t have anymore. It takes moral courage.
The Pretzel Politicians and the Commentators Who Cover for Them
I watch this play out every single day in politics and in finance. Commentators on both sides tying themselves into pretzels defending aberrant behavior by politicians simply because those politicians wear their team’s jersey. The whataboutism is relentless.
- Someone on the left does something clearly unethical, and the response is “well what about what they did.”
- Someone on the right behaves badly and it’s the same game played in reverse.
- Nobody just stands up and says “that was wrong” when it’s their own side.
This is the Emperor Has No Clothes problem. Hans Christian Andersen wrote that story for a reason. Everyone in the kingdom could see the emperor was naked. Not one adult had the courage to say it out loud. It took a child.
Why This Matters Beyond Politics
I’ve spent my career watching this same dynamic play out on Wall Street. Advisors who knew certain products were garbage but sold them anyway because it was expedient. Analysts who knew their ratings were inflated but went along because it was easier. The shortcut and the quick fix almost always end up being the most destructive path.
The lesson from Plessy isn’t just about race or law. It’s about what happens when institutions and individuals repeatedly choose convenience over conscience. The damage compounds. It takes decades to undo. Sometimes it never fully gets undone.
We need people willing to be the John Marshall Harlan in the room. Willing to be the one dissenting voice. Willing to say “I don’t care what my team thinks, this is wrong.”
- Call out bad behavior regardless of party affiliation
- Resist the pull of tribal loyalty over honest judgment
- Understand that the expedient path and the right path are rarely the same road
- Have the courage to stand alone when the facts demand it
It is not left versus right in everything. It never was. It’s right versus wrong. And until more people find the backbone to acknowledge that, we’re going to keep watching the same disasters play out on a loop.