We’ve all heard it, and we’ve all probably said it: We want politicians to stand on principle rather than follow the political winds they feel with their desperately outstretched fingers.
By those lights, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) should be an overwhelming favorite to win reelection to Congress from Wyoming rather than trailing badly in the final week of her Republican primary race. (The primary is on Aug. 16.) If she loses, it will be a black mark against Wyoming voters, against her Republican colleagues who raised money against her, and against the whole Trump-right media conglomerate that has mercilessly attacked her.
As a tenaciously resolute and effective conservative who is obviously acting on deeply held principle even against her own political best interests, Cheney merits admiration and support, not treatment as a pariah. Before addressing the elephant in the room (her entirely justified insistence that the 2021 Capitol incursion was a major and dangerous transgression and that President Donald Trump was to blame), consider her conservative bona fides.
As the House Republican Conference’s chairwoman, Cheney was a superstar often praised by Trump himself and compared to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher by the head of the GOP campaign committee. As this publication editorialized in 2021: “She organized effective events against late-term abortions, for better treatment for military families, in defense of the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms, and for small-business relief.” And as coordinator of House Republican “messaging,” she played a large role in helping her party gain more than a dozen House seats in the 2020 elections.
Conservative members of Congress have long attested to Cheney’s effectiveness as an advocate in favor of a strong defense and better treatment for military personnel, all while passing multiple amendments to limit communist China’s influence. She has been a leader in efforts to streamline regulations and increase choice and billing transparency in healthcare. And of interest not just to conservatives in general but to Wyoming conservatives specifically, Cheney has been a bulldog in defense of private property rights and in support of domestic energy production.
Her MAGA opponents would jettison all of that effectiveness to indulge their own conniption fit about her daring to tell the truth about the Capitol incursion. Consider, though, that she is the daughter of a former vice president. She saw a mob (some with weapons, many yelling for Vice President Mike Pence to be executed) come within two dozen paces and less than a minute of overtaking Pence and his family. She saw a president who not only refused to lift a finger to help his vice president, but who, knowing Pence was in danger, further egged on the mob (and, according to several reports, approved of the physical threat against Pence).
And all of it was done so as to try to stop a sacred civic ceremony and interfere with the constitutional transition of power. Had Pence either succumbed to the pressure or been incapacitated and replaced with a senator who would be compliant with Trump’s utterly unconstitutional demands, the nation’s entire civic order would have been thrust into turmoil of a potentially deadly variety.
At the time, every sentient person on Capitol Hill knew Trump essentially instigated the mob. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said so. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said so. Even Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who was one of the leaders of the efforts in the Senate to challenge the results, said the same.
And that was before a mountain of evidence surfaced showing that Trump was even more willful, more reckless, and more supportive of the riot than had been known in those first two days after the Capitol was breached.
Nobody with a shred of honesty can deny that Cheney’s concerns are serious, legitimate, and reasonable, even if some may ultimately disagree with her conclusions. Repeat: nobody. And nobody can deny her beliefs and determinations are entirely sincere.
Cheney has stayed true to those determinations while knowing her stance was likely to cause her to lose her job. She has stayed true despite ostracism from peers she once counted as friends, despite 18 months of sheer calumny from Trumpist media outlets, and, yes, despite so many death threats that she hasn’t been able to campaign much in person in Wyoming.
The congresswoman’s stance is the epitome of political courage. It is exactly the sort of stalwart obeisance to principle we all say we want politicians to display. Yet when Cheney, with her stellar record of conservative achievement, stands on principle, most of the so-called conservative political world treats her like Public Enemy No. 1.
The hypocrisy of those so-called conservatives is boundless. Even those who disagree with her conclusions about the Capitol riot should respect them while valuing her other conservative advocacy and success. The opposition to her is shameful. Cheney overwhelmingly merits reelection.
