Robert Reich: "In Praise of Liz Cheney."
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"May we have more politicians like her."
On Tuesday, Wyoming Republicans determine the fate of Representative Liz Cheney, the putative leader of the anti-Trump forces in the Republican party.
Six days after the 6 January 2021 attack on the Capitol – when no other Republican in the House or Senate was willing to rebuke Trump – Cheney charged on the House floor that “the president of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing.”
The next day, Cheney joined nine other House Republicans and 222 Democrats in voting to impeach Trump.
So far, three of these 10 principled Republican lawmakers have lost their primaries. Two have won them. The remaining four are retiring.
As vice-chair of the House of Representatives’ January 6 committee investigating the causes of that attack, Cheney has ceaselessly and tirelessly helped lay out the case against Trump during eight public hearings held in June and July, with more to come.
In response, Trump has done everything possible to end Cheney’s career. He made sure House Republicans revoked her status as the third highest-ranking leader of the Republican caucus, and that Wyoming Republicans censured her.
Trump also selected Cheney’s opponent in Tuesday’s Republican primary, Harriet Hageman – who has rallied behind Trump and amplified his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
Hageman has a commanding double-digit lead over Cheney. (According to some reports, Cheney has been reluctant even to venture into Wyoming to campaign, due to death threats.)
If Liz Cheney loses her House seat, as seems likely, I hope she doesn’t disappear from public life. Although her views on countless substantive issues are the opposite of mine, I salute her.
She has displayed more courage and integrity than almost any other member of her party – indeed, given the pressure she was under, perhaps more than any lawmaker now alive.
Oh...
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It will be very interesting to see what her plans are after she loses. Being a principly anti-Trump demagogue is a heck of a long way from reputational suicide, and a heck of a long way from an objective sacrifice. She sacrificed her seat in WY, I'll grant that. But that could easily be a conscious exchange for something else.
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I commented on her in another thread. The way I see it, a representative's main job is to...represent the people who elected him/her.
Though I admire the abstract idea of doing what said representative sees as "the right thing," it can come at a political cost. If you're not doing what the people want you to do, either find people who will support you, or step aside.
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It's just a matter of time before her ambitions become clear. I do not suspect she sees this as a hill she is dying on. I suspect she sees it as a springboard. She vigorously pursued the spotlight through all of this, and she is way more well known and well respected nationally than she ever was before the Trump stuff.
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I didn't think a representative is supposed to be an "average" of voter sentiment from her constituents.
I thought it was the job of a representative to lay out their principles and how they would govern, then go and apply that to the work of law-making.
The job of the representative is to be more informed than the voter and deliberate hard issues so the individual voter doesn't have to (or can't).
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@Jolly said in Robert Reich: "In Praise of Liz Cheney.":
IIRC, her personal worth went up 600% while she's been in office. She'll be okay.
If all she wanted was an idle wealthy life, I bet her daddy would have gladly given that to her. I suspect she needs status and prominence.
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When it's Manchin, he's plowing his own furrow, a brave agent of common sense, blah blah blah.
When it's Cheney, she's a RINO and narcissist who dares to question the will of the people.
I don't really understand the difference, TBH. Maybe reading what people were saying about Winston Churchill in the 30's would be interesting.
I was only joking
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When it's Manchin, he's plowing his own furrow, a brave agent of common sense, blah blah blah.
When it's Cheney, she's a RINO and narcissist who dares to question the will of the people.
I don't really understand the difference, TBH. Maybe reading what people were saying about Winston Churchill in the 30's would be interesting.
@Doctor-Phibes said in Robert Reich: "In Praise of Liz Cheney.":
When it's Manchin, he's plowing his own furrow, a brave agent of common sense, blah blah blah.
When it's Cheney, she's a RINO and narcissist who dares to question the will of the people.
I don't really understand the difference, TBH. Maybe reading what people were saying about Winston Churchill in the 30's would be interesting.
Manchin can be triangulated by policy decisions. Cheney's mavericky "principles" are single-issue.
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@Mik said in Robert Reich: "In Praise of Liz Cheney.":
Who says that?
Sorry, I was riffing.
The exact phrase was "a despicable human being", and "worse than any Democrat".
Even the really bad ones!
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@Mik said in Robert Reich: "In Praise of Liz Cheney.":
I'm fine with her, although I think she got snookered into the 1/6 group.
I'm fine with both Manchin and Cheney. It makes a change for politicians to do something they actually believe in.
The assumption that she's in it for the money and fame, whereas Donald Trump is doing what is right for the country seems a little, well, what's a polite word for it?
I was only joking
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@Jolly said in Robert Reich: "In Praise of Liz Cheney.":
You think Cheney is standing on principle?
Bwhahahahahahaha!
You apparently think that Trump is, which is way dumber.
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@Mik said in Robert Reich: "In Praise of Liz Cheney.":
I'm fine with her, although I think she got snookered into the 1/6 group.
I'm fine with both Manchin and Cheney. It makes a change for politicians to do something they actually believe in.
The assumption that she's in it for the money and fame, whereas Donald Trump is doing what is right for the country seems a little, well, what's a polite word for it?
@Doctor-Phibes said in Robert Reich: "In Praise of Liz Cheney.":
@Mik said in Robert Reich: "In Praise of Liz Cheney.":
I'm fine with her, although I think she got snookered into the 1/6 group.
I'm fine with both Manchin and Cheney. It makes a change for politicians to do something they actually believe in.
The assumption that she's in it for the money and fame, whereas Donald Trump is doing what is right for the country seems a little, well, what's a polite word for it?
I make no claims about Trump’s pure motives. But I could not be more skeptical of the notion that grandstanding about what a shitbag Trump is, is an act of heroism and courage and principle. That attitude in fact is all but prerequisite for a very broad set of social climbing objectives.
