Clarence Thomas, The Happy Warrior

40th president of the United States Ronald Reagan’s legacy is marked by many feats of history, from his victory over the Soviet Union, to his landslide reelection in 1984. It seems everyone from Thomas Massie to Donald Trump, praises the Great Communicator’s lasting impact and memory as the steward of the resurgent right and master of a rhetoric that united the nation. America widely knew Reagan for his way with words, nicknaming him the “Great Communicator.” 

I plan every piece I write in a blue, five-subject, Five Star spiral notebook, its plastic cover adorned with free stickers I got from the Young America’s Foundation (YAF) event I went to last July. My favorite Reaganism happens to be on one of those stickers on my notebook, which features a (partially edited) picture of Mr. Reagan holding a sign above his head that says “BE A HAPPY WARRIOR.”

Much like President Trump and the “Make America Great Again” moniker, Reagan didn’t create the saying, and he was not the first man to own the nickname. In 1807, English poet William Wordsworth created the phrase in the aptly titled poem The Character of the Happy Warrior. FDR used it later to describe Presidential nominee Al Smith at the 1924 Democratic National Convention.

Though he neither created it, nor was the last person to use it, I believe there is a reason that the phrase belongs to the legacy of Ronald Reagan: his illustrious attitude coupled with his ideological gravitas made the Gipper the best example of a truly happy warrior. 

Today, there are few political leaders I consider to be happy warriors, however my list grew by one person a few weeks ago, when, on June 29th, a clip of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas went viral across social media platforms. Walking through the halls of the Capitol the day before the Supreme Court released a plethora of highly anticipated decisions, Thomas laughed with his security detail as MSNOW congressional reporter Mychael Schnell bombarded him with questions typical of any legacy media reporter. 

“Justice Thomas… Who are you meeting with this afternoon?”

“Oh, nobody!” Thomas laughs.

“So what are you doing up here?”

“Oh, just walking!” Smiles.

“No meetings in particular?”

Again, laughing, “None that I want to tell you about!”

“Do you want to give us a sneak peek of some of the decisions?”

“Uh, nope!”

The childlike grin on Thomas’ face is enough to make me laugh every time I watch it. 

I’ve watched (probably) hundreds of videos of congressional reporters chasing big names around the halls of the capitol to berate them with gotcha questions and statements meant to redden faces, so it wasn’t the questions that I was interested in, but Thomas’ unencumbered response that amuses me. If you haven’t seen the video, I highly recommend watching it, because if I must choose one moment in recent history to exemplify the character of the happy warrior, it would be Clarence Thomas sauntering through the halls of the US Capitol on June 29th, 2026. 

Thomas is certainly one of the more popular sitting justices among Conservatives but his history is not as well known among his fanbase.

“He labours good on good to fix, and owes

To virtue every triumph that he knows…”

- William Wordsworth, The Character of the Happy Warrior

Thomas, born in 1948, grew up in a poor, Gullah-speaking neighborhood of Savannah, Georgia. He set his sights only on becoming an ordained Catholic priest, but became disillusioned by the discrimination and racism that the Church tolerated. Later, Thomas went to Yale Law School in 1971, working for the Office of Missouri Attorney General (and eventual U.S. Senator) John Danforth upon his graduation. In 1981, Reagan himself beckoned Thomas to be the Assistant Secretary for the Civil Rights in the Department of Education before leading the EEOC just one year after. Finally, for the capstone of his career’s rapid succession, President George H.W. Bush nominated Thomas in 1990 to fill the seat of the late Justice Thurgood Marshall who pioneered the way as the first black Supreme Court Justice. The Senate proceedings began shortly after for the (widely considered) less-than-qualified Thomas.

“...if he rise to station of command,

Rises by open means; and there will stand

On honourable terms, or else retire,

And in himself possess his own desire”

Being a happy warrior requires one to balance buoyancy and gravity, hope and reality. Thomas’ confirmation is among the most well-known in American history, as it was the first in which inconclusive allegations of decade-old sex scandals plagued the nominee’s reputation. Americans predicted this would be the downfall of Bush’s 43-year-old nominee. The happy warrior, however, had a different philosophy of mind. 

“But who, if he be called upon to face

Some awful moment to which Heaven has joined

Great issues, good or bad for human kind,

Is happy as a Lover; and attired

With sudden brightness, like a Man inspired;

And, through the heat of conflict, keeps the law

In calmness made, and sees what he foresaw”

Famously, on October 11th, 1991, Thomas made his remarks concerning Hill’s allegations: 

“The Supreme Court is not worth it. No job is worth it. I am not here for that. I am here for my name, my family, my life, and my integrity… And from my standpoint as a black American, as far as I'm concerned, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas…”

Those who withstand attacks from the Left still repeat Thomas’ words as a display of their resolve. The words themselves are masterfully assembled, but the manner in which he delivered them was what, I believe, led him to cross the finishing line by the narrowest margin in about 100 years. 

Today, happiness is synonymous with the presence of perpetual pleasure and a shield from the gravity of the fallen world when, in fact, it is the exact opposite. True happiness hurts. It requires pain to cultivate and strength to maintain. It does not entertain, but sustains. True happiness yields virtue, which educates the righteous man on when he must joke and when he must work. 

After 35 years, walking airily through the Capitol, humorously disregarding the jabs of the elitist media class, Thomas is no less a happy warrior. What looked to be a funny exchange between reporter and a justice, I came to learn, had a deeper layer. The next day, the public, unsurprised, would find that Thomas had continued his legacy of staunch textualism and classical American judicial philosophy. Men who merely lead movements often use one of two methods: composing philosophical indictments on popular beliefs or adopting a humorous emotive appeal. The man who wins battles is one who cultivates both, carrying the burden of a nation on his back with a smile on his face, withstanding scrutiny with unrelenting grace. 

I believe Clarence Thomas is an overlooked figure in the fight for the nation. Too often, we criticize our own movement for playing into the Left’s attack on common sense, waiting to argue against transgenderism only after we find studies that “back up” our claims, and refusing to “stoop down” to their level of attack in the name of our sacred “principles.” I have written before about the necessity of pragmatism in politics and the uselessness of impractical principles. Justice Thomas is an unwavering example of what it looks like to play what Wordsworth calls “the many games of life.” With no lust for fame or acceptance, he silently puts his head down and writes philosophical dissertations that shape the country, yet laughs through the halls of Congress, offering what some may view as less-than-professional responses to a reporter only days later.

This is the balance of the happy warrior: the balance that Reagan struck with his witty jokes and erudition that people still quote from memory today. This is the balance that we must keep today to triumph over those who seek to further dismember our national thesis and shared identity. Judicial dissertations will not save the country without iconic charisma, but personality will not change the country unless it has the philosophical teeth to back it up. We, as a movement, must master both, filling the social media algorithms and law schools with faithful men who wish to align their talents with what is important. 

We all, like Clarence Thomas, must pursue the character of the happy warrior, for it is a happy army that will win in the end.