By removing Rep. Liz Cheney from her post as chair of the Republican conference, the GOP leadership showed they more interested in regaining power than in abiding by the Constitution even if it takes becoming a cult devoted to worship Donald Trump.
Even before the vote, it was clear Cheney was going to be voted out of leadership, so she broke with her fellow leaders. She had the courage to challenge Leader Kevin McCarthy, and speak ill of Trump. She did it loudly and purposefully, saying the quiet part out loud, taking on the former guy directly inside the room with his defenders.
“We cannot let the former President drag us backward and make us complicit in his efforts to unravel our democracy. Down that path lies our destruction, and potentially the destruction of our country,” she told them.
She was booed by some of her colleagues in an effort to silence her. But in trying to curtail Cheney’s ascent as a leader within the party, they handed her a bigger megaphone and the power to speak freely. She’s not just a House GOP someone, she’s now a national leader — with national exposure. And so Cheney is now a national story… and the worst nightmare for the GOP.
Republicans now face the real possibility that all of this could backfire on them. Because Cheney isn’t giving up, and the louder Trump and his minions become, the louder she and other like-minded conservatives will become.
Make no mistake, Democrats will use her words against Republicans to try to urge those who don’t believe the election was rigged to join forces.
And her defiant proclamation will haunt the GOP well beyond the next election: “I will do everything I can to ensure that the former President never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office,” she said. “You can see the danger that he continues to provoke with his language. We have seen his lack of commitment and dedication to the Constitution.”
Yes, Trump allies in the House succeeded in ousting Liz Cheney from her leadership post. However, as she said after the vote, “this is the first salvo” in a war that has just begun.
It’s going to be a political civil war like we’ve never seen before. It’s going to be fought with the fervor of a religious crusade. In those battles, those who worship false idols tend to lose.
