Needed: politicians with courage

If the country is going to move beyond the polarized edges of politics and the muddled moderate middle that's virtually spineless, it's going to need politicians with courage to break out of the pack, writes columnist David Brooks in today's issue of The New York Times. Examples: Franklin Roosevelt, Robert F. Kennedy, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani.

In other words, the country needs leaders.

Southern progressives ought to listen to his message and take hints, for it offers a way for them to distinguish themselves as regressive politicians lumber ahead and others battle to be marginalized:

"Yet the courage politicians are important these days, especially for those who hope to escape the current polarized landscape in Washington. If some new political force is to smash through the reigning orthodoxies and the stale hatreds, then a courage politician will be at its head.

"The center is weak in Washington because most moderates lack guts and ideas. They lack the courage to take on party leaders, and so almost always buckle when the heat is on. Furthermore, they have no cadres of foundations, think tanks and scholars to give them intellectual heft. You go to a liberal or conservative organization's dinner and the room is filled with scholars and writers. You go to a centrist dinner and the room is filled with lobbyists."