There is a striking scene – one of many – in George Butler’s "Going Upriver: the Long War of John Kerry" that will probably stay high on my list of things I think of when people ask me why I love America.

When the Vietnam Vets Against the War convened in the Capitol Park to protest the war, the Capitol Police, doubtlessly responding to orders from the Nixon administration, told the protesters, some 1,500 Vietnam vets, that while they had the right to be there and to protest, that if any of them slept in the park, they would be arrested. The vets, led by John Kerry, consulted among themselves and elected to stay.

Word of the pending confrontation spread to Capitol Hill. As evening approached, people left their offices in the Capitol and the EOB and other storied marble edifices, and came down and formed a crowd between the police and the vets. These weren’t just average people taking a stand on principle; these were secretaries and other staffers from Congressional offices, Republican and Democrat alike. It was over one hundred members of the House of Representatives, and over a dozen Senators. These were some of the most powerful and most politically vulnerable people in America, risking everything they had to come down and prevent the police from hassling a bunch of scruffy looking demonstrators in the park.

Try to imagine the Tom DeLays and Bill Frists of today’s Congress taking a similar stand on principle.

My only regret, having seen "Going Upriver," is that I hadn’t seen it sooner. George Butler’s documentary gives more insight into who John Kerry is than all the media coverage of the campaign combined. Aside from the false claims of the Smearboat Vets and the shrill cries of the trash right, there never was much doubt about Kerry’s courage. What "Going Upriver" provided was an amazing look at his character, and his ability to lead people under the most difficult of conditions when it would be far too easy to give way to hoarse shouts and hate-filled rants.

Immediately after watching the movie, I read Paul Krugman’s election-day essay, which will appear in today’s NY Times. Krugman, another example of calm leadership in turbulent times, expressed his admiration of the American people, and their ability to fight off the cynicism and spin and go out and vote in record numbers. He spoke of the crippled state of Florida, where twisted little gnomes of the right have worked so hard to prevent people from voting, writing, "[P]eople in some polling places had to stand in line for four, five, even six hours, often in the hot sun. Some of them - African-Americans in particular - surely suspected that those lines were so long because officials wanted to make it hard for them to vote. Yet they refused to be discouraged or intimidated."

He quoted Joshua Marshall, of talkingpointsmemo.com, who wrote, "To see people coming out - elderly, disabled, blind, poor; people who have to hitch rides, take buses, etc. - and then staying in line for hours and hours and hours ... Well, it's humbling. And it's awesome. And it's kind of beautiful."

Yeah. The same way mimeograph workers with their jobs on the line defending people taking an unpopular stand on principle is beautiful.

Courage doesn’t come from having a gun. Courage comes from being able to face a gun, and not backing down.

Kerry was brave in Vietnam. But his real character and courage came to the fore in Washington, DC. George Butler was a fine documentarian when he did "Pumping Iron," the remarkable study of Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was a masterful documentarian when he did "Going Upriver" and refrained from turning it into a puff piece for Kerry, but instead let the events and the people surrounding Kerry in those days speak for themselves.

Paul Krugman, an economics columnist for the New York Times, never served in the military. But he became convinced that economics without a look at the overall political picture was meaningless, and long before any other mainstream journalist dared question the administration in the wake of 9/11, because the administration’s most potent and persistent critic, using the formidable weapons of reason and research, never falling into the trap of ranting and demagoguery.

He never served. Just like Tom DeLay, or Newt Gingrich, or Dick Cheney. But he never said he had "more important priorities," or tried the pathetic DeLay excuse that he didn’t get drafted because "minorities had taken all the positions." His is a different, quieter form of courage, and as with Kerry, one that the corrupt and venal in positions of power fear even more than the raving terrorists with the huge weapons.

You can’t discuss American courage over the past ten years without mentioning Michael Moore. His documentary "Roger and Me" took on corporations, then the absolute sacred cows of America. It was much safer to spit on the flag than to suggest that these psychopathic behemoths might not really have America’s best interests at heart, and that perhaps the philosophy of pseudo-Adam Smith that their flaks promoted put corporate interests over those of ordinary people.

"TV Nation" was an amazing, delirious adventure in television journalism. Often wacky, sometimes even clownish, but utterly unique at a time when television journalists were getting multimillion dollar contracts from their new corporate owners and quickly selling out left and right – well, right. None of these pompous asses sold out to the left.

These are heros of modern America as it pulls back from the precipice of corporate fascism. These are the real risk takers, the people who dared to be unpopular when unpopular ideas were most desperately needed by America, and who have helped to keep America a place that people can take pride in.

As election day dawns, this is a good time to say to all four of them, and the millions who have supported them and fought alongside them, "Thank you."