With All Due Respect, That’s Chicken Sh*t

There are a lot of great stories about former Speaker of the House, John Boehner. And as a fellow Ohioan, I’m contractually obligated to share great stories about Ohioans. With recent events in the Buckeye state, I felt there was no better time than the present to share.

A number of years ago, I was working for a member of Ohio’s congressional delegation – one who happened to be very close to then Speaker Boehner. They’d worked through a lot together, including the minefield that is House GOP caucus politics.

You see, whichever major American party is in the majority actually has a much harder time of it than most of us realize. It’s a great deal easier to be in the minority – excepting the fact that fewer of your bills are likely to make it out of committee. What I mean when I say easer is this: you don’t have to lead, and you get to spend your time lobbing political grenades at the majority. Those are lower stakes.

But when you’re in the majority, you have to spar with that opposition and maintain the ranks of your own coalition to maintain any hope of actually governing. At the time of this story, Speaker Boehner was doing just that. He was managing the mainstream wing of the GOP, sparring with Congressional Democrats and battling dissension in his own ranks represented – at the time – by those known as the Freedom Caucus.

You see, that particular group of about 40 members really wanted to pull the rest of the party into their lane. They’d use crisis and friction points the same as the minority party as leverage to advance their own agenda. They had just enough votes to be a real force within the caucus.

Speaker Boehner knew how to pick and choose his battles, though. He knew when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em. And during one of those moments of friction, he demonstrated his own personal – and colorful – brand of leadership.

There was a big vote coming the next day. It was a must pass measure in the heat of a really ugly dogfight in Congress. And the Freedom Caucus – at least publicly – wasn’t going to vote the way the Speaker needed them to in order to win the vote. And that was a problem.

But a bigger problem was their justification.

You see, one of those Freedom Caucus members stood up to speak during the GOP caucus deliberations in order to address their concerns on that vote. What did they say? According to those in the room it was something like this:

Mr. Speaker, don’t get me wrong – I want this bill to pass. But we compromised with the Democrats just a little too much. I can’t vote for this thing then go back to my constituents and sell it to them. They aren’t going to like it. It’s a good bill, but they aren’t going to like it. I’ll vote “present” but I can’t vote for that bill.

After a moment, Speaker Boehner took the floor to respond. He looked his colleague in the eye, and said:

“That’s chicken shit.”

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Why am I sharing this?

I started posting on this site around two years ago. And the catalyst is easy to identify. That summer we spent reckoning the tragic death of George Floyd, and I was pissed.

We were at a junction moment when liberals and conservatives alike could – if handled the right way – push for meaningful criminal justice reforms. But almost as soon as it began, I expressed to those in my own life that I felt the moment was going to slip by us, again.

I had a gut feeling that the activists in the crowd would drown out those who could guide effective advocacy. Because of that, I thought the movement would lose steam before that cumulative and iterative work of advocacy could be accomplished. Sadly it did. Not much really changed.

Just this past weekend, Ohio had to wrestle with the breaking news of a young man shot 60 times by police in Akron. I refuse to jump to conclusions in any situation like this. Invariably the story evolves as details emerge. But even a default to respecting due process leaves room for the big questions like why? And more importantly, what the hell do I do now?

2020 was my saturation point. I realized I had to do something, no matter how small, if I was going to come to terms with the weight of those questions. That’s why I started sharing my thoughts on advocacy here. Because I genuinely believe we can empower average Americans to engage better with their government, their representatives, and the political machine.

Doing so won’t prevent a death, but it puts us in a posture to help pull, and ultimately bend, the arc of history toward justice.

That’s the rub though. Taking action means taking ownership. And if you haven’t reached your saturation point, you may not be there quite yet. But in the long run, sitting back and ignoring the issues driving you mad simply isn’t good enough any more.

With all due respect, it’s chicken shit.

You’re pissed about a court decision? Hold legislators accountable for failing to own the process and pass meaningful laws. You’re pissed your viewpoint isn’t being considered? Lean in and show up – join an association and get to work. You’re mad that your taxes are too high for too little delivered in return? Me too. Let’s learn how to dig into the process and fix it.

All of those things are achievable. They are all possible. And all you have to do is choose to be a part of it. When you choose to get trained as an advocate, you start that process of taking ownership. You also learn ways to stay in the fight when the passion of a moment has cooled.

But at some point you do have to choose. You have to choose to show up and do the work. You have to stop being chicken shit. That’s the lesson Speaker Boehner was trying to teach his colleague. And it’s why I keep showing up here.

I may not be quite as colorful as John Boehner, but I can help you show up in the right ways. And I’ll keep doing it – even if I disagree with you. Why?

Because I ain’t chicken shit – and you aren’t either.