We live in a strange place and time. I find myself reading conservatives and Republicans. Why? Because the rare ones who can bring themselves to break with their racist and radically anti-democratic political party speak with a clarity that those of us who are more forward-oriented seldom match.
Liz Cheney believes in terrible things, most certainly guns for all and unconstrained U.S. foreign adventures. But she also seems to care about the country's faltering democratic vision.
I ... know that at this moment, we are confronting a domestic threat that we have never faced before. And that is a former president who is attempting to unravel the foundations of our constitutional Republic.
And he is aided by Republican leaders and elected officials, who've made themselves willing hostages to this dangerous and irrational man.
No party, and no people, and no nation can defend and perpetuate a constitutional Republic if they accept a leader who's gone to war with the rule of law, with the democratic process, or with the peaceful transition of power, with the Constitution itself.
... As we have shown, Donald Trump attempted to overturn the presidential election. ...
... It's undeniable. It's also painful for Republicans to accept. And I think we all have to recognize and understand what it means to say those words, and what it means that those things happen.
But the reality that we face today, as Republicans, as we think about the choice in front of us: We have to choose. Because Republicans cannot both be loyal to Donald Trump and loyal to the Constitution…. [LOUD APPLAUSE]Not everyone was applauding. A Republican hack protested to Fox News inciter Laura Ingraham:
[Craig] Shirley predicted that the presidential library would face a backlash over its decision to host Cheney, the chair of the House Jan. 6 committee, which many Republicans in Congress have denigrated to Trump’s delight. The library, Shirley said, “is going to see donations trickle down because of this and attendance trickle down because of this.”Dissenters from the Orange God King must be punished.
In the country at large, Republicans cannot win a majority of freely cast votes. Oh sure, they can win in unpopulated and unprosperous rural areas. But most of us want something else, even if we're not very good at agreeing on exactly what. So Republicans have to rig electoral districts, rig election procedures, and ultimately rig the courts to try to hang on to power over the majority of us. They will not stop unless/until we stop them, outvote them, outlast them, and ultimately peacefully overwhelm them.
1 comment:
Given what those who seem to control the current makeup of the Republican Party stoop to doing is in and of itself enough to make any self-respecting individual reject them, but apparently not. That is enough for many people to automatically discount them I would think. That does leave the rest of us Independents, Democrats, etc. to need to stop them as you describe. Will enough pay attention and do just that?
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