What does it mean to say someone marches to the beat of their own drummer? It means that they refuse or at least they choose not to follow their leader. It further means that they don’t care if anyone follows them. It means that they are independent agents, most definitely not followers, probably not leaders.
They are, moreover, rare. Why? Because most of us follow most of the time. We prefer to be part of the herd rather than to stand alone. Standing alone is lonely and often it’s scary. Standing alone is standing out. Standing alone leaves us vulnerable to being alone – to being defenseless against whatever the gathering storm. Marching to the beat of your own drummer is then not just a lonely business. Often, it’s also a risky one.
Lisa Murkowski marches to the beat of her own drummer. She’s been U.S. Senator from the state of Alaska for over two decades. But maybe because she’s from Alaska – Alaska being so far from the continental United States, and so sparsely populated – her fierce independence and risky idiosyncrasy are largely ignored.
When she comes right out and says or does something that Donald Trump detests – as happened again last week when she refused to vote to confirm Todd Blanche as U.S. Attorney General – the president explicitly insults her and implicitly threatens her. Calling her as he did a few days ago a “traitor” explains why more than once she dared to point to the president’s malevolence. “We’re in a time and a place,” she said on one occasion, “where… I’ve not been before.” She continued, “I’ll tell you that I’m often times very anxious myself about using my voice, because retaliation is real. And that’s not right.”
In another era Murkowski’s regular refusal to go along not just with the White House but with her Republican colleagues in the Senate – who prefer to kowtow to the president in unison – would make her stand out. Would certainly in some quarters confer on her the honorific of American heroine. But as it stands, she remains widely ignored not just by Republicans but by Democrats.
Except of course among Alaskans, enough of whom value, maybe even treasure, that the woman who represents them dares to say what she really thinks and then to vote her conscience. Who risks in an age of abject timorousness and extreme conformity to march to the beat of her own drummer.