Courage is doing what is right when is likely comes with significant personal cost. Cowardice is failing to act generally out of fear of personal loss when the moment demands. The alt-right has been allowed to over the GOP because too many Republican members of Congress wither thought they could deal with and manager the extremists they were letting into their ranks or they underestimated the hold Trump and his alt-right followers had over voters. When it became clear that both were misconceptions, Republican members of Congress were faced with a choice, go along or stand up for democracy and the established order they once avowed to defend. Collectively they could have done some, but it required sufficient number of courageous individuals to prevent them from being targeted and overwhelmed by the alt-right insurgents. Only a handful met that challenge. The result has been the annexation of the GOP by Trump (who has no principles but loves the power and the attention) and his alt-right helpers. All it takes for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.
“Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. He is not a good man who, without a protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name, and with the means which he helps to supply, because he will not trouble himself to use his mind on the subject.” John Stuart Mill, 1867
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