Despite loss, Liz Cheney taking fight to Republican authoritarians

Last Updated on August 23, 2022, 1:30 PM | Published: August 23, 2022

If U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney’s defeat during last week’s Wyoming congressional primaries is instructive of anything, it is that democracy is falling out of style with our nation’s most reactionary, hair-on-fire-conservative constituency. It is now up to those who value democratic governance and principles to save the United States of America from itself. 

Cheney is being blackballed by the Republican Party for her stewardship (with Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi) of the January 6th hearings. Despite having voted with former President Donald Trump about 93 percent of the time and supporting him during his first impeachment, party loyalty is now valued by Republicans over the principles of democracy set forth by the framers of the U.S. Constitution. 

For Cheney, her “small-D” democratic principles kicked into overdrive when domestic terrorists stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. As she and her colleagues were being ushered to safer spaces within the building, she told the execrable U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, “Get away from me — you fucking did this.”

Jordan stoked those fires set by Trump, as did most of his craven colleagues. Cheney’s actions to defend and protect American democracy from that point forward were courageous and truly the definition of exceptional, because nearly everyone in her party, including the miserable lickspittles that make up the entire Oklahoma senate and congressional delegation, have taken a taxi to the dark side. 

Cheney’s seat will now be taken by Harriet Hageman, a former anti-environmental lawyer who, in 2016, was a “never Trumper,” but now is four-square behind the American Stalin. Hageman blathered so much insurrectionist nonsense during her campaign that it appears she is ready to take the mantle of outgoing U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas as the dumbest person in Congress.

In contrast, Cheney is smart and has killer instincts. That does not make me like her particularly, much less want to ever vote for her. Like her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, she is smart and cunning, but also kind of a dick. She cheered the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which effectively overturned Roe v. Wade this summer. She is a friend to democracy, but not to many of the rights enshrined through democracy.

But she is incredibly effective as co-chair of the January 6th committee, in part, because she considers terrorist actions like the attack on the U.S. Capitol to be anathema to the American tradition of governance. She recognizes that there is precious little difference between the actions of Timothy McVeigh in downtown Oklahoma City and the violent insurrectionists who poured into a place of laws, desecrated it and threatened to, as they chanted, “Hang Mike Pence.”

Taylor Budowich, a spokesman and adviser to Trump, was quoted in the Aug. 18 edition of the New York Times as saying about Cheney, “She may be fighting — she may have been fighting for principles, but they are not the principles of the Republican Party.” 

This is a statement that should be allowed to marinate in all reasonable discussions concerning the eventual fate of our country. This is a mouthpiece for Trump admitting that democracy is off the table for Republicans, and that their desired future is an American autocracy. 

In a post-defeat interview with ABC’s Jonathan Karl, Cheney blasted Budowich with righteous anger. 

“You know, what I’m fighting for is the Constitution,” Cheney said. “What I’m fighting for is a perpetuation of the republic. What I’m fighting for is the rule of law, the fact that everybody’s got to abide by the rule of law. What I’m fighting for is the fact that elections have to matter and that, when the election is over, and the courts have ruled and the Electoral College has met, that the President of the United States has to respect the results of the election. What I’m fighting for is the principle that we have a peaceful transition of power and that we don’t determine … who rules based upon violence.

“And if Donald Trump’s spokesman says that those are principles that are inconsistent with Donald Trump’s views and inconsistent with the Republican Party’s views, I think ought to give every American pause about who Donald Trump is and about what the Republican Party stands for today,” she said. 

There are now people running for state and national offices who are campaigning on authoritarian platforms. These include Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Arizona’s Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, a former TV anchor turned desert fascist. These people are truly anti-American. They are the people who cheer for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), and then take his authoritarianism home in their conference gift bags. 

Conventional wisdom says that Cheney will mount a presidential campaign in 2024. She has virtually no chance of winning such an election, but she will be on the dais with Trump at the debates and crisscrossing America, pointing out his anti-American thoughts and actions. 

It is people who embody the courage of their convictions, like Cheney has in her committee work, who will ensure that we continue to have elections.

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