Each year since 1990, The Kennedy Library recognizes someone who has displayed courage as demonstrated by the subjects of John F. Kennedy’s book, “Profiles in Courage.” 

Barack Obama won the 2017 award last month. I thought, in fairness, that people who have exhibited political cowardice should also receive an appropriate symmetrical award. I suggest the name, “Profiles in Cowardice.” 

I nominate the following people, more or less in chronological order:

• John F. Kennedy, for accepting the Pulitzer Prize for “Profiles in Courage,” even though Theodore Sorensen actually wrote almost all of it, except for the first and last chapters.

• Lyndon Johnson, for all his misdeeds concerning Vietnam chronicled in H.R. McMaster’s book, “Dereliction of Duty.”  President Johnson kept the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the dark and maneuvered to exclude them from decision making in the period before the 1964 election. With Robert McNamara’s help, he also kept the American people and their representatives in Congress in the dark until he left office. Domestic politics mattered more than the welfare of American servicemen in Vietnam.

• Richard Nixon, for Watergate and for believing that in the context of American national security, “Well, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal.” That was a quote to David Frost during Nixon’s series of TV interviews with him.

• Bill Clinton, for the sleaze of his personal behavior that led to his impeachment and for lying to the American people about it.

• Barack Obama, for announcing a red line concerning Syria’s use of chemical weapons and then not acting when Syria crossed it to use chemical weapons on its own people.

• Hillary Clinton, for illegally using a private e-mail server for her official classified correspondence and lying multiple times about it.

• James Comey, for recommending that Hillary Clinton not be indicted after reciting a long list of her illegal actions regarding her e-mail server.

• Barack Obama, for not firing Loretta Lynch after she met privately with Bill Clinton while Hillary Clinton was under investigation by the FBI.

• Donald Trump, for insulting his opponents and exhibiting generally crass behavior during the primaries and general election. Examples of his behavior include:  “little Marco Rubio,” “lying Ted Cruz,” “low energy Jeb Bush,” and pledging to “lock up Hillary Clinton.” Look up “demagogue” in the dictionary.

These nine nominations include one double nominee (Obama) and they do not include probably hundreds of other politicians who also have exhibited lamentable cowardice.

Except for Nixon, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump, these men and one woman have somehow largely escaped the condemnation of our media. Now I don’t mean that the other nominees entirely escaped the media’s notice — only that the media noted what happened and then moved on.

The media is one of our most effective checks on misbehaving governmental officials. Elections are the most effective check, but elections come only every two years. 

Americans seem to have only a limited attention span, so the media must keep the American electorate focused. Except for Republican misdeeds, our media has done a deplorable job.

Each year, the poorly performing media seems to get worse. That worsening media performance contributes to the widening of the rift between Americans at each end of the political spectrum. It is almost as bad now as the last half of the 1960s. 

Something dark is happening to our country. So far, the political demonstrations have been mostly peaceful, but that could change. I don’t believe our system is basically unfair or unjust.

I do believe that cowardly leaders should be turned out of office legally as soon as possible. Being U.S. president should be an honorable job.

Trump is a special case, because he is not a career politician. Some of his behavior can be attributed to amateurism. 

That said, we need to watch him very carefully his first year. Next year, he will no longer be a rookie.

Michael Waldron is a retired lieutenant colonel, U.S. Army, who was born and raised in Niles. He previously served on the Niles Community School Board of Education. He can be reached at ml.waldron@sbcglobal.net.