Courage Can Save Us
A Night Owls Podcast with Rye Barcott
Rye Barcott created the political action committee, With Honor, which supports the Congressional bipartisan military caucus, with the late David Gergen and a fellow veteran named Peter Dixon. I’ve written about it frequently here, supported and advised the group, therefore caveat lector. But don’t caveat too much: that would be cynical and lead you away from one of the few sources of hope in American politics right now
Rye is a great American, an enthusiast—as all great Americans are—an optimist, an activist. While he was still in college, at the University of North Carolina, he started a charity in a Kenyan slum, Kibera, that has blossomed, more than twenty years later, into a health facility, an education and sports program. He then served in the Marines, in Iraq, Djibouti and elsewhere. Afterward, Rye went got joint masters degrees in Public Policy and Business from Harvard. With his mentor Gergen and fellow veteran Dixon, Rye co-founded With Honor—which funds the campaigns of Democrats and Republican veterans, but only if they sign a pledge to work together. There are now 37 With Honor members in the House, 11 in the Senate and three Governors. These are among the most admirable Americans I know; there are future Presidents among them.
Rye’s new book Courage Can Serve Us, offers profiles of ten House caucus members, 5 Democrats and 5 Republicans who are members of the cross-partisan caucus.. It is not like other books too frequently celebrated these days: it’s not about how awful everything is in America. It is the opposite: a hopeful look at some of our emerging national leaders, without being a hagiography. Working across party lines isn’t easy, these days. It begs death threats from freak constituents and primaries from extremists (on both sides). Three of Rye’s 10 subjects are leaving Congress. But more are on the way! The caucus persists and is an antidote to the despair so many feel about American politics these days.
Rye sat down with John Ellis and me to discuss Courage Can Serve Us. You can’t listen to this guy without feeling at least a little bit better about our country.
It would be nice if you pushed the button below and subscribed to Sanity Clause, but it would be even better if you supported With Honor, one of the true sources of Sanity in American politics right now.
Until I relocated to NC in 2020, I was proud to claim Jimmy Panetta's father, LEON Panetta, as my Congressman, and then super proud to see him head the CIA. When Jimmy took Leon's old seat in 2016 after several years in local politics, I was still not quite convinced he could fill his dad's shoes. I'm glad to see him affiliated with an organization like this!
Thank you, Joe, for turning me on to With Honor. It really does warm my heart to see that there are people of this caliber making law for us, standing firm against the crazy.
Joe - thank you! I have long been a proponent of some type of mandatory service, or at least incentivized service. I look forward to reading the book, and learning more about With Honor.