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Cheney: Wrong War, Wrong Time, Wrong Tactics
Wrong War. Wrong Time. Wrong Tactics. I think that’s emblazoned on the Cheney Family Coat of Arms. No one needs more evidence of that than the drama that has just played out in the House GOP Conference. But I come not to praise Caesar, but to bury her.
Liz Cheney may be a book-smart woman. But she and her supporters have been awfully stupid since January. Maybe that comes with believing that power is your birthright and not something to be earned from the people you are supposed to represent. Liz Perry – she’s been Mrs. Philip Perry for 28 years now – clings to her father’s name like a hereditary title. It is the source of her power. She was made the Chair of the House Republican Conference in January 2019 despite the fact that she had only been in the House for a single term. In her four years in the House, she has never proposed legislation that had been signed into law. So, the Cheney name is all she really has.
But who needs personal accomplishments? She went straight from college into a job at the State Department. (Who doesn’t?) Then came law school and a high-profile lobbying job with the “consulting” firm led by Richard Armitage. With her father’s election as Vice President, it was back to State. In other words, she took all the obvious career paths that most of her Wyoming constituents take.
And now, she has become a “hero” to the Left and the disgruntled establishment for fighting an internecine war with her party and her constituency. Because of her name recognition, she is one of those politicians who has never really had to engage in retail politics – climbing the greasy pole from local office to local office, working your way to state government, before trying the national stage – and all while building coalitions and creating political capital. Like so many others before her, the smartest person in the room also becomes the dumbest.
What Liz and her supporters cannot seem to come to grips with (or by nature they are oblivious to) are these basic facts:
- You may win future elections without Donald Trump but you will not win them without his supporters. His constituents are your constituents. A mainstay argument of the anti-Trump crowd is the former President’s “underperformance” compared to the GOP House and Senate candidates. Even if that’s true, the proportion of voters that supported both greatly outweighs the difference. And for someone like Cheney, she underperformed Trump by some 8,000 votes.
- Whether you’re a politician or a pundit, the near-universal response to the allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election has been stupid. Not just stupid, but mind-numbing levels of stupid. A working democracy depends upon a mountain of faith that the process is on the up-and-up. If 40 percent of the American public believes the 2020 elections were fraudulent, that is not a Donald Trump problem. That is an existential problem for the Republic and therefore it is your problem. The proper response should have been, “We know that there are doubts and we are going to do everything we can to allay these fears.” Instead we got, “You people are stupid. Shut the hell* up and go away.” Unfortunately, that toothpaste can’t go back in the tube. Donald Trump may fade away but the result of the glee so many take in attacking his supporters will not.
- We all know the phrase, “The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations.” It’s mainly used as an argument on race relations and the “dumbing down” of standards. But it applies everywhere. How you treat people will eventually alter their trajectory. If you constantly accuse someone falsely of bad conduct, if you prosecute them for your own political gain, they will eventually take the attitude that they will live down to the accusations. I mean, if you’re going to do the time, why not actually do the crime? And so it is with January 6. There were six deaths surrounding the events of that day, five of them medically induced. The only unnatural death was that of Ashley Babbitt at the hands of a Capitol Hill Police officer. However, if the politicians and the pundits continue their accusations of “armed insurrection,” they will eventually get one. They may see it as an opportunity to finally “deal” with Trump supporters, but that is a beast that, once unleashed, may not be as easy to control as they think. The second American Civil War would not look like the first one. Forget Gettysburg, think Beirut. And Northern Ireland. And Syria. And this crusade SecDef Austin is waging against his own troops is the epitome of stupid. When the shooting starts, loyalty is not going to be decided by a uniform.
Originally, Liz Cheney moved to Wyoming to claim her hereditary title in the US Senate. Her plan in 2014 was to stab another Republican – incumbent Senator Mike Enzi – in the back. (Anyone sense a pattern here?) When it became obvious that she on course for an embarrassing spanking in the primary she backed off and settled for the state’s at-large House seat two years later. Now, she is reduced to being one ineffectual vote among the minority. Maybe Joe Biden will reward her loyalty with a return trip to the State Department as US Ambassador to Iraq.
*Not the word I wanted to use.
Published in General
This is a question that I have been spending a lot of time thinking about. I’m not sure which would be the greater tragedy: the US tearing itself apart in a a second civil war to the delight of China and its allies? Or the US not tearing itself apart, but simply sliding into the soft tyranny of Progressive “mommy socialism” and national decay…to the delight of China and its allies.
At least in the event of civil war, there is the prospect of eventually restoring the freedoms and promise of our American heritage. If the Progressives succeed in implementing their socialist state, that which made America great will be lost forever.
DeSantis is not Trump. I may not agree with DeSantis on some issues, but he has not done any of the stuff Trump has. I will judge DeSantis on his own merits.
Put simply, Liz Cheney right now is the most direct path to restoring the Party of Reagan.
Liz Cheney isn’t going anywhere. And she is now free to respond to each and every Trump blurt.
What, NOW she’s free?
Sheesh.
Well she’ll be even more free if she’s not in office at all.
You think that will now be her career focus?
No she’s not. Because she’s not interested in that in the slightest. Not one person in your orbit of admiration is interested in Reagan.
Counselor, you have to answer the questions. Evasion is not allowed. You can’t change the reality by ignoring it. This is not a situation where you can make a hit-and-run appeal to authority. Because Mrs. Perry has no authority. She is not respected and her opinions to not carry the weight you believe they do.
If I am wrong, and you believe that I am, deal with the substance of each and every one of those arguments. You can ignore me all you want on your posts. But when you post in mine, have the decency to deal with the issues at hand in your own words.
Non-responsive. EJ asked you a direct question. Three of them in fact. I’ll just ask one.
Can Republicans win elections without Trump supporters, yes or no?
Not going to happen. he is incapable of actually responding to are engaging on points.
The actual problem is that there are so many people announced to primary her. There are like 6 of them so far. He best chance for re-election is for these others to split the vote and have liz win by a plurality not a majority.
Why? Never-Trumpers hated the vehicle (Trump), but allowed that hate to reject the cargo (a conservative agenda). You didn’t judge Trump on the merits of his agenda, and that’s what really counted. Well, how do you like Biden’s agenda? Do its merits strike your fancy? What about Biden’s “vehicle”? I think he is worse than Trump when it comes to personal behavior – and Trump’s wasn’t all that bad, given his background . . .
He has stated that he has mixed feelings about DeSantis. I asked him to write an article about it.
Everything Moves Towards Communism All Of The Time™
Great post.
“…when the shooting starts…” After observing the past 5 years, I think it remains unlikely that we will have a “hot” civil war, rather than continue the “cold” one that is currently ongoing. While the latter will continue to have isolated flash points (pun intended), a la Portland OR and Minneapolis MN, it seems to me unlikely that it will even get to Beirut or Kosovo existential levels. The reason is that many ask the wrong question about deducing whether things will get broadly kinetic. Many think the question is: “are you ready to die for your cause?” No, that’s not what triggers the switch to wide-spread violent action. The question is: “are you ready to kill for your cause?” I do not see a critical mass of people ready to take offensive action (defensive action is very different).
I would not be surprised if there is an increase in assassinations and Weather Underground-type bombings, but I don’t think it will get beyond that. A number of high-profile media/political/celebrity figures may be targeted for assassination by individuals or small groups, but I don’t see the widespread brother-against-brother shooting war starting here.
Good post, EJ. I just don’t see the a shooting war happening to large degree.
I agree that Cheney has no business in GOP House leadership for all the reasons you state. Most importantly, she has not acted like a Congressional Leader. McCarthy is a good example of a Congressional Leader. I suspect his personal views are a lot squishier than his views as head of the Congressional party. That comes with the territory.
Like she hasn’t been ‘free’ already. The democrats are the ones who stifle free speech. But you aren’t paying attention to that, because TRRRRRRRRRRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMPPPPPPP. Sad.
Exactly. Expecting people to behave well with respect to this is ridiculous.
Yes. That has definitely been the subtext of every comment on the incident from Nevers.
I hope you’re right. However, most failures along these lines are failures of imagination. “I can’t see ‘X.'” is one of the last great lines of history. “Once Hitler gains Austria his territorial ambitions are pretty much complete. I can’t see him forcing another war on his people…”
It’s clear she thinks this will provide a base for her future political plans. I suspect they include the Presidency or Vice Presidency. Unfortunately, she’s spent too much time in the DC bubble. Her base of support (Legacy Media/Democrats) will only use her as the current John McCain-like tool to bash the GOP. I’ve seen much touted about her voting record, and I don’t dispute any of that. But that was easy. She is the representative of the not-crazy wing of the Establishment. The Establishment is not in fine fettle with the electorate right now, and the not-crazy wing of it is declining in reach and clout. Furthermore, nothing the Establishment overall is doing shows any likelihood of changing that dynamic.
She will be a trivia question that only political nerds like us can answer successfully.
One thing we can rely on, EJHill’s posts have the best illustrations, because they’re made from scratch, as it were.
Make sure to check with The Bulwank first to see what you’re supposed to think!
There you go.
As Mark Steyn has stated the GOPe has decided it needs a new base.
I for one am not going back to business as usual pre Trump.
I can’t at this moment see conservatives being willing to kill for their cause. I can see the left working itself up into a killing frenzy for theirs. They are already engaging in dehumanizing conservatives, that is always how it starts.
Indeed. Long ago, I used to say that – for example – in a “final debate,” pro-abortion would “win” because Molly Yard (for example) would be willing to kill Pat Robertson (for example) over it, but Pat Robertson would not be willing to kill Molly Yard.
This level of passion makes me suspicious. I understand nervousness about DJT’s presidency in 2017. I do not understand it in 2020, 2021, +++.
For those who constantly lament his destructiveness (Eric Weinstein and Sam Harris for two examples), I’ve asked for specific examples – what are they so afraid of? I’ve never received a reply.
I have a few in my life who hate DJT with a white hot passion, but their reasons are personal and have nothing to do with his record as president. I understand that Liz might have deserved personal problems with DJT, but politics makes for strange bedfellows. And she should know that also. Ted Cruz certainly understands.
These past few years have knocked more than a few scales from my eyes, and I now believe I have no idea what’s really going on. I look back on opinions of mine firmly held in 2000 + and now shrug my shoulders. I now believe I didn’t have sufficient and/or accurate enough information upon which to base those opinions.
So … what’s really going on with Liz? Why such personal animus? I don’t think I’ll ever know, but I’m suspicious.
It looks to me like some of these people make money off of forming anti-Trump groups. I saw speculation that she is going to do that. Evan McMullin and friends is doing it.
I’m not sure, either, but the Cheney’s and Bush’s are deep state insiders. More than any other entity, Intel agencies worked tirelessly to subvert and hamstring DJT from the Russia shenanigans to the Ukraine debacle and the Bounty hoax, as well as possibly the Covid leak and hysteria and the strange happenings surrounding the election and bad actors who infiltrated the Capitol on Jan 6th. Yes the media too , but they are obviously indebted to Intel sources and leaks if not wholly controlled by them. Liz is more than a congresswoman she’s a mouthpiece and activist for that cabal.
It makes much more sense if seen through that perspective.
Vladimir Putin’s FSB has trouble finding the killers of people like Boris Nemtsov and Anna Politkovskaya. Seems to be a common problem.
Agreed 100%. That’s where my mind is going these days.
And I think the media is not so much indebted as “owned by” Intel. I now view media as merely spokesholes for various agencies.
I’m pretty much of the same frame of mind. A couple of decades ago I was comfortable with my political thoughts, then I had some real concerns with some of the directions taken under Obama, but what was revealed to me after Donald Trump’s election simply astounded me. Government behavior during the course of this pandemic has confirmed much about these revelations and left serious doubts about whether we have the wherewithal to salvage the representative republic handed to us by the founders. Some of the forces working against us are sinister, some are merely corrupt, and others operate in ignorance or lack of attention.