Happy July 4. We have a republic to save.
If the republic is intact, even public policy I dislike will sort itself out over time into something tolerable.
If the republic itself is broken, then it only gets fixed by chaos and war.
I disagree with Liz Cheney on many issues, but she has the big thing correct. We have a republic to save. She is speaking here to fellow Republicans, but they are words for the nation. She is at the Reagan Library. She said:
But I also 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.Now, some in my party are embracing the former president, and even after all we've seen, they're enabling his lies.
Many others are urging that we not confront Donald Trump, that we look away.
And that is certainly the easier path.
One need only look at the threats that are facing the witnesses who've come before the January 6th committee to understand the nature and the magnitude of that threat.
But to argue that the threat posed by Donald Trump can be ignored is to cast aside the responsibility that every citizen, every one of us, bears to perpetuate the Republic.
We must not do that. And we cannot do that.
Ronald Reagan said it is up to us in our time to choose — and to choose wisely — between the hard but necessary task of preserving peace and freedom, and the temptation to ignore our duty and blindly hope for the best, while the enemies of freedom grow stronger day by day.
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 the full picture is coming into view with the January 6th Committee, it has become clear that the efforts Donald Trump oversaw and engaged in were even more chilling and more threatening than we could have imagined.
As we have shown, Donald Trump attempted to overturn the presidential election. He attempted to stay in office and to prevent the peaceful transfer of presidential power.
He summoned a mob to Washington.
He knew they were armed on January 6th.
He knew they were angry, and he directed the violent mob to march on the capital in order to delay or prevent completely the counting of electoral votes.
He attempted to go there with them. And when the violence was underway, he refused to take action to tell the rioters to leave.
Instead, he incited further violence by tweeting that the vice president, Mike Pence, was a coward. He said, quote, Mike deserves it. And he didn't want to do anything in response to the “Hang Mike Pence” chants.
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.
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9 comments:
Liz Cheney for President. I know she is conservative, but she is someone I respect. The country could do worse. We need to take away patriotism away from the fascists. They aren’t patriot’s, they are insurrection fans. Liberals are the true believers in democracy. We are still a great country currently going the wrong way, but that can be corrected.
Liz Cheney places her loyalty to the Constitution above her loyalty to the Party. She may consider herself a Republican, but for taking her oath of office seriously, they don’t consider her one.
Those who minimize the threat of Trump and his cult like to imagine that if we quit paying him so much attention, he’d just go away. They’re apparently oblivious to the fact that he remains the leader of the Republican Party, not in spite of being an anti-American pathological liar, but because of it.
I would be happy to see Liz run as a Republican. If she ran as an independent, she’d just split the vote and ensure four more years of Biden’s bumbling “leadership.”
Like peeling and cracking paint, stuff slowly deteriorates unless it is maintained in a timely fashion. Our House, that we call the United States of America, in under an insidious attack from within. It's as if our metaphysical house is being eaten away inside by an infestation of termites. The foundation, our Constitution, is being eaten slowly. Our attention is diverted by purveyors of the Big Lie. It's all just politics they say. The Democrats are out for revenge against a popular populist President as they're still smarting from the Hillary Clinton loss. Folks on Fox News start with a truth, Hillary Clinton lost in the Electoral College, only to paper over a real crime by one of their party in their next breath. Ending again by saying is just politics, nothing to see here. The checks and balances we assumed were in place have failed as one of the two political parties fails to hold their members to account. The three-way checks have failed to stop or expel members that abuse and trash their oath of office. We were witnesses to a coup beginning in the open on January 6th, 2021 that is still in progress; however, love of party in this group trumps The Constitution. Buckle up political watchers, the next 5 months are going to get rough.
Just a reminder:
Cheney is no hero for keeping her oath. She just isn't traitorous, as are so many of her colleagues. Even Biden is a better president than she would be, but I expect in 2024, we'll have an even better option - somebody younger, more dynamic - maybe Gov. Newsom. It sounds like he's already taunting DeSantis.
Man democrats are pushing so hard for Liz Cheney you'd almost think she wasn't a real republican, hence why her party is abandoning her. Though it would be nice for you all to have someone across the aisle to vote along with you to keep up the illusion of more than one party in control.
Glad you like her.
Gavin Newsom is way too Left coast. Most Americans are not ready for California Democratic politics and policies. His wife, the gender-neutral "First Partner," is the same. (How sad that sex/gender is now a no-no to some individuals.)
I am looking for a more centrist Democratic candidate that does not scare voters with their extreme pc views. Sex, race and sexual orientation do not matter.
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Peter Sage
“….or words to that effect”.
—Cassidy Hutchinson
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