Politicians play it safe. They pander to their base. Promise the sky. Cater to lobbyists. Just to stay in power. 

But to do what’s right? What’s just? What’s best for the greater good, and in alignment with their values? 

It’s rare to see politicians doing this these days. Except….

Consider this:

President Lyndon Johnson, a former US Senator from Texas and the epitome of the Southern “good ol’ boy,” cajoled, bullied, pleaded, and argued with Congress during a 72-day filibuster in opposition to his proposed bill. 

But finally, on July 2, 1964, to a room packed with Civil Rights leaders and congressmen, Johnson signed the historic Civil Rights bill into history. 

While there was a huge celebration, late that night his wife found him slumped in a chair, with his head down. “What’s wrong,” she asked? “You should be thrilled with what you just accomplished.” He looked up and said, “I think we just delivered the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come.”

He wasn’t wrong. In fact, the combination of losing Democratic support from the South and the Vietnam war cost him his reelection. 

Putting it into play

Doing what’s right is hard. But doing what’s right, when it jeopardizes your job, costs us friends, and threatens our standing is the hardest ever. 

But power is a privilege, not just a perk. We have to pay for it, and the cost of having power is to use it for something more than simply staying in power. 

The price of power is to make small sacrifices, to inconvenience yourself, and, as Simon Sinek writes, to go last. It often doesn’t take much: speaking up for others, offering to help, giving someone else the limelight, championing an unpopular but necessary cause. 

In Johnson’s case, the price tag was a big one, but the benefit to others was much, much bigger.