America cannot remain free if we abandon the truth. The lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen is insidious.
It preys on those who love their country. It is a door Donald Trump opened to manipulate Americans to abandon their principles, to sacrifice their freedom, the justify violence, to ignore the rulings of our courts and the rule of law.
This is Donald Trump's legacy, but it cannot be the future of our nation.
. . .
Give Liz Cheney credit. She has become a champion of American democracy.
I think she was slow to recognize the threat that Trump posed to our democratic institutions. I think she failed to recognize the errant, dysfunctional direction of the Republican Party -- long before Trump. (Such is the power of partisanship in a polarized electorate.)
In 2012, Thomas Mann and Norm Ornstein observed, "The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition."
Donald Trump didn't open the door to an off the rails, anti-democratic GOP. Newt Gingrich made great strides across that threshold more than a decade ago. (Cheney's father, who launched a war through deceit and slander of folks who opposed it also crossed that threshold.) Many others, over many years, were forerunners of Trump. And by 2022 we have witnessed a stampede of Republicans (in Congress, in statehouses, on Fox News, and among grassroots activists and primary voters) to embrace their leader and his lies, while rejecting democratic institutions. From the veneration of Viktor Orbán at CPAC (and on FNC) to the open hostility toward democratic principles in the Arizona GOP, many Republicans are no longer on board with "the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people” (in the words of George Washington).
Give Liz Cheney credit. Unlike her Republican peers in the House, she has finally seen enough to draw a line (and the courage of her convictions not to backtrack). She has chosen to embrace truth and principle, not lies and ambition. (Few others, certainly not the minority leader, have made that choice.)
Although I disagree with the congresswoman, vehemently, on nearly every political issue separating the two political parties, we are in agreement regarding the anti-democratic turn the Republican Party has taken. that it is a lie that the 2020 election was “rigged and stolen,” that embracing that lie is inconsistent with the rule of law under the Constitution, and that our democracy requires the peaceful transfer of power and the rejection of violence.*
Wyoming voters, overwhelmingly Republican, will likely turn her out today as punishment for her commitment to truth, to the rule of law, to free and fair elections, and to the peaceful transition of power. Their fealty is to Trump, not to American democracy.
Such is the power of partisanship in a polarized electorate.
Small-d democrats, with Cheney, must hope that this cannot be the future of our nation -- and be committed to a protracted struggle to preserve democracy.
*Note: After brief reflection, I believe that Liz Cheney and I have differences “regarding the anti-democratic turn the Republican Party has taken.” I have no reason to believe that she accepts the Mann/Ornstein conclusion or the indictment of Newt Gingrich (and other Republican partisans) for demonizing political opponents, poisoning public discourse, stifling the give and take of politics, and rendering government unresponsive – all of which, I contend, have damaged our democratic institutions. Cheney does not agree with me regarding the transformation of the GOP over the past two decades. She stands apart from most of her party, however, because she has found a bridge too far with Trump’s big lie and his efforts to overturn the election. On that we agree.