How Liz Cheney can kill the MAGA threat
If you become a paid subscriber to The Warning, this is an example of the daily commentary you’ll receive from me — plus, you can join my monthly “Ask Me Anything” sessions.
Thanks for your support.
Steve
*********************************************************************************************************
Killing the MAGA movement is beyond the capacity and imagination of the national Democratic Party’s sclerotic and inept leadership. It has failed utterly. Even more atrociously, Chuck Schumer has failed to adequately support and fund the very best Democratic candidates in the country, including Tim Ryan and Val Demings.
The American two-party system has failed. This moment of national crisis demands the creation of a new political party that will serve as a coalition partner to the Democratic Party. It must defend the United States Constitution and the American Republic from the extremist movement that threatens it, and is currently headed by Donald Trump.
There are millions of Republican voters who are appalled by both Donald Trump and the Democratic Party. It matters not whether I approve of their analysis or risk assessment. It is simply true that, for whatever reason, millions of Americans remain unconvinced that Donald Trump is a threat to them, while maintaining that the Democratic Party is. The disinterest around that question and the sanctimony unleashed by the left end of the pro-democracy coalition — when it is occasionally considered — is more than ample evidence to dismiss as ludicrous the idea that the current Democratic Party leadership has the skill to assemble a big tent coalition to decisively rebuke a frightening and belligerent minority hell bent on seizing political power and ending American democracy.
Liz Cheney is the most famous of the 10 impeachment managers who lost their political careers within the Republican Party for opposing Donald Trump. Congresswoman Cheney has often said that she will do anything within her power to make sure that Donald Trump never returns to the Oval Office.
That assertion clearly has two parts attached to it. The first must be viewed in the context of the discharge of Ms. Cheney’s constitutional duty as a minority member of the January 6 Select Committee. Her service on this vital investigative committee has been luminescent in a cynical time. Her conduct and selfless devotion to duty has been rightfully praised by people of good faith and goodwill from varying political backgrounds who maintain devotion to the nation and constitution above any consideration including political party, faction, tribe, clique, gang, family or person.
The January 6 committee has exposed sedition and assigned responsibility for the betrayal through meticulous, fact-based presentations. There is no doubt about what happened, and who was responsible for the greatest act of treachery ever committed by a president against America. The American people owe Chairman Thompson, Congresswoman Cheney, Congressman Kinzinger, Congressman Raskin and all of the members and staff a great debt of thanks. Each performed their duty in exemplary fashion and rebutted through word and deed the deep distrust and contempt the American people hold for the Congress.
The second aspect of Ms. Cheney’s assertion must be evaluated through an electoral lens. Ms. Cheney is clearly intimating that she may run against Donald Trump for the presidency. It is here where the American public will soon be owed greater clarity from Ms. Cheney about her intentions and strategy.
What exactly does she mean when she says she will do anything to stop Donald Trump from reaching the White House? What are the follow-up questions that must be asked around a vital candidacy?
Donald Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in 2024. In fact, it is probably more accurate to describe him as the presumptive nominee. Ms. Cheney has no conceivable pathway to the Republican nomination. She held her ground admirably, and did not submit like nearly every other elected Republican member of Congress to a cause that almost everyone of them vigorously denounced at one time. She is an authentic conservative with a deep devotion to the US Constitution who will never be competitive against Donald Trump in a New Hampshire primary.
That leaves only one path. Liz Cheney can end the MAGA movement by breaking up the Republican Party, which has been completely taken over by the MAGA movement at a local, state and national level. Simply put, the inmates are in charge of the asylum. It’s all MAGA all the time, and it is much more Steve Bannon’s party than Liz Cheney’s party. The failure to recognize this is delusional. Delusion is not an ally in a fight against authoritarian extremists.
Ms. Cheney can start a conservative party that is hard-line on guns, abortion and national security, but is uncompromisingly pro-democracy.
This party will be able to advance elements of a conservative agenda that can be accommodated by the senior coalition partner, the Democratic Party. Together, both parties will be able to keep the MAGA minority from seizing power and ending democracy.
Over time, a principled, steadfast, uncompromising conservative party will be able to strangle MAGA. It will achieve that worthy goal by losing virtuously. A conservative party would be the home for a small fraction of the electorate, maybe no more than 15 per cent of the country. That is a minority percentage, but a large raw number. It is a number big enough to matter. It is a number that is more than ample for seats at the table in a coalition where compromise and accommodation are celebrated as important markers of achievement — as people of good faith strive to reform and renew America. The goal of politics should be to make life better for the people, not to enrich the politicians and definitely not for the purposes of burning down the society and starting a civil war.
Decent conservatives and moderate Republicans who have not been welcomed by the Democrats — and have been told that they must repent and seek redemption from political partisans in the other party who hate them — need a place to call home.
They must become permanently severed from their former friends who have abandoned democracy but carry the letter “R” with them still. That letter and name means something to these people. They don’t like people who scream at them about Ronald Reagan being a war criminal. They don’t like being told that the condition of the country is their fault, though they oppose it as fervently as the Democrats who castigate them. Everyone needs a home and everyone needs to be seen and heard.
Liz Cheney may lead these people through a long wilderness and one day restore the Republican Party as a vessel of American democracy and decency. She may one day be the nominee for president of that party, but it’s a long way off. Today, the Republican Party of MAGA is occupied territory. There is no way in, and no way out.
There is a lethal strategy at hand for MAGA though.
All that has to happen is for Liz Cheney to say, “I’m running for president as a conservative. I’ll be on the ballot in all 50 states. Join me.”
If she holds that line, MAGA is over as a political threat. Once that happens, temperatures can cool and we can start talking about better again.
You’re promoting what we, under the parliamentary system, call a “coalition government”. Makes strange bedfellows but can actually become a workable compromise which allows some things to get done. It also can weed out extremists, as you suggest.
We have one right now, in Canada, with Trudeau getting the support he needs from our NDP party, when they are happy enough with their ability to exert some influence. They have agreed to vote with the Liberals….for now. They don’t dictate policy, but they do influence it and can check things if it gets crazy. It can get messy, when there are too many parties, like in Israel, where disparate, extreme parties must be wooed and can become arbitrary king-makers, but that’s not where you are…yet.
Bob Rae, a brilliant, decent and practical man, a previous NDP Ontario Premier (similar to a Governor, for those unfamiliar with our system) who switched parties to join the Liberals and served in the Federal Government and now serves as Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations, used to sing a little ditty he wrote called “Same Boat Now” (on YouTube) which encouraged his fellow citizens to celebrate their diversity and work together for mutual benefit. It caught on. (You could use a theme song which doesn’t glorify war).
What concerns me, however, is that getting along, which Biden is encouraging, goes completely against the American cultural identity of “winner take all”!
This ideological requirement that there must be winners and losers in everything you do works at the stadium or field and beauty contests, but is eventually self-defeating and not conducive to a mature, functional society.
Instead of “all for one and one for all” mentality, I’ve found, when speaking to many Americans, in my travels, and consuming a lot of varied media from different sides, America prefers ideas like “every man for himself” or “what’s mine is mine….get your own” and, of course, the concept of “rugged individuality”. Teamwork is encouraged only when it leads to defeating the other teams! You talk about “leaving it all out there on the field”, describe success as “killing it”, too many still don’t value or respect women or the contributions of various ethnicities to the culture. The “almighty dollar” is still the main earmark of success. This kind of mentality isn’t really conducive to a productive way of life for most people.
Liz could break away, as you suggest, and make some headway, but then what? It seems her main focus is on getting rid of Trump and saving the Constitution. Would she and her subsequent followers be interested in saving,say, the “social safety net”? Any “huddled masses, yearning to be free”? “Equal pay for equal work”? Roe vs Wade? The planet?
Will you just end up right where you are, in the end?
I fervently hope this works out for you for your sakes, but also for ours. We have a tendency to emulate our southern neighbour and already have politicians who are being referred to as ‘Trumpy’ and anti-social groups emerging on the fringes, pushing for power.
Liz Cheney is clearly one of the heroes of the trials and tribulations we have gone through since 2016 and since our capitol was pillaged and desecrated on Jan 6, 2020. She possesses extraordinary courage. She is fearless. She is persistent. And she is smart.
Many excellent points were made in your expose, and this is one that stands out to me:
"Decent conservatives and moderate Republicans who have not been welcomed by the Democrats — and have been told that they must repent and seek redemption from political partisans in the other party who hate them — need a place to call home."
Yesterday, I was in Salt Lake City at a talk given by Evan McMullin and Adam Kinzinger. It was electrifying. The crowd, mostly an older one, received them like heroes returning from the front. There was so much positive energy there that ran directly counter to Trumpism and the MAGA crowd. One old timer sitting next to me, from Box Elder Country, said "Mike Lee is in trouble. He should never have taken out the Book of Mormon and said that Donald Trump was like the Angel Moroni. My grandkids have no idea how close we came to becoming a monarchy in 2020." I replied, "Amen. Nor should the evangelicals have said that Trump is King David." There is hope out there. I hope the man was right about Mike Lee being vulnerable in this election.
At the event, I learned of Adam Kinzinger's Country First movement (country1stdotcom). Country over party, country over tribe, country over the cult of personality, our Constitution over everything (the real one, not the bastardized version touted by those who carry a never read let alone understood pocket version and who claim to know what's in it.) There are currently 200,000 members (now, 200,001). It's a place a lot of decent folks can go to.
Last night, I believe there was a $$/plate event in Park City with Evan McMullin and Adam Kinzinger but I couldn't make it. Steve, perhaps you were there?
Country First!