Thinking about Liz Cheney and the Republican party
What does it mean when there’s no place in the Republican party for Liz Cheney? In the traditional measure of what makes a “conservative,” or what makes a “pro-Trump” politician, few elected officials have a stronger record than Liz Cheney. Certainly, the little twerps in current vogue – Marjorie Taylor Green, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Bobert – don’t approach her in conservative street cred. Yet, Cheney’s the one who was expelled from her party positions, reprimanded by her state party, and, ultimately, slaughtered in a primary.
Matt Gaetz – clown and accused serial child molester – is a better Republican than Liz Cheney. Think about that.
The prototype “new Republican” is emerging.
Doesn’t accept election results unless his/her team won. And, it doesn’t take any evidence. Most Trump supporters will reel off their favorite list of long-since-debunked examples, but they had decided the election was being stolen before the network anchors were well launched on the election night broadcast.
Doesn’t acknowledge any obligation to provide information to Congress or a grand jury if there is any risk the proceedings are “anti-Trump.”
Believes that anyone who DOES cooperate with law enforcement or a Congressional probe is a rat.
Will claim to be pro-police and pro-military but is untroubled when his/her party launches vicious attacks or when his/her favorite president releases massive amounts of highly classified material, refuses to participate in ceremonies to honor soldiers, calls them suckers, says his generals are stupid, forces them to stand down and allow their former allies to be ethnically cleansed, or meets repeatedly, in private, with an American adversary.
Believes that violence, lying, and cheating all are ok. It’s all right to disenfranchise millions of voters if that’s what’s needed to ensure an “honest” election (that is, your candidate wins).
Isn’t particularly disturbed about credible accusations of domestic abuse, domestic violence, and sexual abuse, as long as the candidate’s pro-Trump credentials are in order
The appropriate response to any public official – election worker, FBI, school board member, judge, teacher, local politician, governor – who does anything you disagree with is to reveal information about the official and his/her family, gather at their home all hours day and night, and issue death threats.
Admires nativist dictators like Viktor Orban more than democratically elected leaders of strong allies
Advocates cruel treatment of immigrants, people in need of healthcare, students with massive college debt, people working for minimum wage, and anyone else not leading a life of comfort
The party has been on an increasingly nihilistic path since it rejected the 2012 autopsy, which called for the party to broaden its appeal to nonwhite voters, and instead doubled down on appealing to angry white men and suppressing everyone else. But it has only recently entered the particularly dangerous territory it occupies now.
What’s different from the GOP of, say, three years ago? Well, a few things.
First, now it’s not just Trump whose bad behavior will be excused by the party faithful. The MAGA regulars have always been ready to make an excuse for Trump’s confessed sexual assaults, his consorting with our adversaries, his repeated compromises of classified information, his open profiteering from public office. But now, the party has decided that every Republican gets a pass. An ex-wife can go on TV and describe “the first time [a Republican Senate candidate] pointed a loaded gun at my head and threatened to blow my brains out” or a congressman can be credibly accused of repeated acts of sexual relations with a minor, and both remain members in good standing.
Second, it’s not just the extreme fringes of the party that went off the deep end. The Republican party has always had its John Birch Society wing, but that never represented the mainstream of the party. Now, the whole party is into election denial and 100% Trumpism.
Finally, it’s not just fringe nuts like Paul Gosar calling for revolution. For many years, the “mainstream” elected officials winked at the party’s slide into nihilism and violence without directly condoning it. The earnest, “Well, I don’t see why he can’t just produce his birth certificate,” the little grin and “Well, if he says he a Christian I take him at his word” was a way to cheer the party’s nut wing on while technically maintaining a distance. Even this stance did incalculable harm, but the mainstream of the party at least officially remained grounded in reality.
In the past, the dangerous rhetoric came from a few Pat Buchanans and Ted Cruzes and Alex Joneses. Little weasels like Marco Rubio and Pat Toomey found codewords or rushed by reporters, pretending they were hurrying to an urgent meeting. Now? Charles Grassley, Marco Rubio, and other “establishment” Republicans are pretending to believe stuff that only two years ago would have been confined to a Q-anon chat room.
We’ve entered dangerous new territory, with the party’s political base clearly conditioned to react with armed threats (and actual violence) and the elected leaders using incendiary language to stir them up.
Republican Senators know very well that FBI agents carrying out a search warrant that was reviewed by Merrick Garland and approved by a federal judge are not committing “Gestapo tactics.” They know that the IRS is not hiring 70,000 armed agents who will be coming after small businessman and the middle class. But in the past few weeks, the party went utterly off the rails. And took us all to a very dangerous place. I hope the police are ready if the 2022 election results are disappointing.
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This series is written to promote political discussion and organizing. Permission is given to use this in fact sheets, talking points, letters to the editor, etc. We’d appreciate if you notified Gettysburg DFA (leonsreed@gmail.com) of any uses. Written by Leon Reed.