When someone from the Cheney family is the protagonist, you know you’re living in a horror show. It is not a good thing that Rep. Liz Cheney is about to be defenestrated. The country would certainly be better off if she kept her position in the House Republicans’ leadership.
Christ.
What happened to this country? Where’s the sparkle? Where’s the spring in our step? It’s darker ’round here these days than a black steer’s tuckus on a moonless prairie night.
I’m forced to defend Liz Cheney because the alternative is infinitely worse.
Anyway, she’s toast.
The House Minority Leader, Kevin McCarthy of California, was just caught on a hot mic in the Fox News studio saying he’s “had it” with Cheney and that someone ought to file a motion to strip her of her job as the House Republican Conference Chair.
There’s no walking that back. Not only will the motion be introduced but it will succeed.
Cheney’s guilty of insisting that the 2020 presidential election was on the up-and-up and that the January 6 insurrection was a serious crime for which Trump should be held accountable. Those are intolerable positions for a Republican to hold right now and expect to lead anyone.
I don’t know what Cheney will do. She’ll probably lose her seat in a primary if she tries to hold on to it. She’s not welcome in the Democratic Party, nor would she want to join even if invited.
I guess the more interesting thing is what banishing Cheney will do for the GOP’s ability to hold on to traditional Republicans in the “let’s invade Iraq and torture some folks” mold. The neoconservatives were always delusional about what America can and should do abroad but they aren’t even on the same playing field of crazy as the QAnon and MAGA crowd. Most of them left the party during Trump’s first term, so I guess Liz can join the crowd.
I don’t know if something like the Lincoln Project would appeal to her.
This country is so screwed.
Contrary to your opinion, I think this story is excellent news for the country. The only reason to think it is bad for the country is if you believe there is any way back for the Republican party. That is if you believe the GOP will come to its senses and choose the truth and democracy over lies, cheating and fascism.
If you believe otherwise – that the Republican party is lost forever – then this has to be good news.
I do not like Liz Cheney (or any of the other never Trumpers) but on the only issue I care about in the next two elections – whether American democracy survives – they are all on the right side. That the GOP is purging dissidents is a good thing. They are making the party smaller and crazier and easier to defeat. They are not attracting new voters.
What will Cheney do once purged? One thing she won’t do is vote Republican. She will also probably keep speaking out and every time she does, she hurts the party. She won’t have anything to do with Democrats but if she loses her primary, she might run for her seat as an independent and maybe give Democrats a chance at her seat. (Okay, I’m a dreamer.)
All this does hammer home the point that American democracy is endangered because there is only one political party that believes in democracy. We already knew that, didn’t we? That Liz Cheney knows it too has to be a good thing.
Agreed. I don’t think it’s a bad thing at all. And maybe she still runs for Pres as an independent, totally screwing Repubs chances for the White House.
Since the Obama era and probably the election leading up to the Obama era, I’ve probably consistently said that the GOP was the party of batsh*t crazy and the Democratic Party was the party run by competent technocrats. The departure of the last of the relatively less unhinged among the GOP will draw that distinction into either sharper relief. Added bonus: there’s some real fire in the bellies of the folks in charge of the Democratic Party, and we’ve seen some transformative legislation happen just in a small handful of months with narrower majorities than anything Obama enjoyed during his first two years of his first term. There are some real problems that need to be dealt with. Getting some rogue Senators on board to gut the filibuster to get some needed voting rights legislation passed is crucial, if for no other reason than a system where one party is generally interested in and competent at governing and the other is just out for raw power, no matter how toxic and crazy it has to behave, is simply not sustainable over the long or even medium haul. In the meantime, I don’t cry for Liz Cheney. She made her own bed a long time ago, as did the rest of her family. If somehow a reasonably sane center-right party that is serious about governance emerges from what is potentially the ruins of the GOP, so be it. Getting there will be difficult. If we know how Coen Brothers films tend to go, sometimes they end on a fairly light note (like The Big Lebowski, which I noticed you referencing, which is far out) or they end up somewhere a lot darker (e.g. Fargo). Let’s hope The Dude abides.
Wow! I had to look up the definition of defenestrated. Love it!
Also noticed that you said “Trump’s first term”, we are well and good over if there is a second term.
While the fascists continue to push forward, there does still seem to be room for hope. Biden / Harris is looking like a world changing administration.
So much is about getting rid of the filibuster so that Democrats can pass legislation that will benefit everyone. I don’t think that most people who find good jobs and see their economic situation improve as result of Biden’s plans for the country are going to rush to vote Republican. Legislation has to be passed, and the Democrats need to make it perfectly clear and to keep loudly talking about the fact that the Republicans had no part in anything that improves peoples’ lives. Liz Cheney doesn’t believe in the Big Lie, but she also doesn’t believe in any of Biden’s plans for the country.