I'll address the comments about Liz Cheney by telling you what Harvard Professors Ziblatt and Levitsky say about how democracies die and how they are saved.
(The book is fabulous and was quite timely when it came out in 2018)
Basically, they said this (page 299):
When one of the candidates (in this case, Trump) goes off the deep end and embraces autocratic methods, what will save the nation is Republicans to switch and vote Democratic . . .
1/
This requires short-term sacrifice.
The idea is not that the Republicans give up conservatism and become Democrats.
The idea is that they switch over and accept short-term political sacrifice for the good of the nation.
The authors give an example of this happening: In 2017, defeated French conservative candidate Fillon called on his partisans to vote for center-left candidate Macron to keep nutcase Le Pen out of power.
2/
Early in her own book, Cheney mentions that her voting record is more conservative than the "freedom caucus" but she wanted nothing to do with them because she could see they were unhinged.
She isn't giving up being a conservative.
She isn't going to become a liberal.
She is doing what Ziblatt and Levitsky said Republicans would need to do to save us from someone who has gone full-on authoritarian.
Their book was widely read. No doubt Liz Cheney read it.
3/
Go ahead. Be angry at the Cheneys for their politics.
But recognize what Liz Cheney is doing and why she is doing it.
She is willing to endorse her ideological rival -- and anger her own base and colleagues--to keep Trump out of power because she recognizes that he is uniquely dangerous.
In her book, she is calling out the Republicans who continue to kiss Trump's ring as moral cowards.
I don't like her politics, but I respect what she is doing and why.
4/
I had never heard of that book, thank you.
It would be really cool if you could put up a list of maybe 25 books that are worth reading.
This is good idea. Maybe that will be my New Year's blog post.
I did a short list at the end of the Rage-Misinformation Cycle series on my blog. Did you see that one? It's in Part 6. (The series is my pinned blog post on my blog, link in my bio)
@theandil @Catawu @Teri_Kanefield
Who moved to Texas? Kinzinger?
Did he think he can run for governor or senator from Texas?
@theandil @Catawu @Teri_Kanefield
The lines politicians won't cross, when there are such lines, are odd. A lot of anti-Trumpers are fine with repressing votes and putting their thumb on the scale but when they see someone ready to sit their whole ass on the scale say, "that's not how it's done!"
The only pure heroes are fictional & even they have their flaws in Modern Fiction.
@Teri_Kanefield An enemy of mine enemy...
We have to use all tools at our disposal before there aren't any available.
@William_Robison @Teri_Kanefield I disagree. They need a generational of losing. Basically what happened to Republicans 1930-1950 or Democrats between 1980-1994 (maybe until 2004). 2018-now is a start, but we need another 10-20 years.
One thing that will anger the far left is Democrats need to appeal to the center for that to happen. That means Clinton/Obama/Biden center-left policies.
Right now, stopping Trumpism is more important than any policy.
@gcvsa @William_Robison @Teri_Kanefield Republicans call people RINOs if they ever vote with liberals. I think you’re doing the same.
If you have 10 policies, look at how often a politician backs the left/right position. A centrist would be 5-5 (Joe Manchin). Biden is probably 7-3 support of the left. He’s absolutely center-left.
Frankly, the people who couldn’t vote for Hillary helped elect Trump. And they could do it again in 2024.
She did vote to impeach for the second impeachment.
@Teri_Kanefield agree.
I do not like where she stands on policy, but unlike most if not all of the republican party I respect her enough to trust she is following a consistant set of values that aren't predicated on human suffering at their core.
@Teri_Kanefield I have seldom agreed with a Cheney, but I'm with her in this fight.
NEVER vote for a Republican.
I have heard Cheney saying that she wants Democrats to retake the House. And I've heard her say Trump shouldn't be reelected. I agree with both of those statements.
But she hasn't quite said we should vote for Biden, has she? Instead she thinks we should vote for...Liz Cheney, the third party candidate.
https://boingboing.net/2023/12/05/democracy-is-at-risk-cheney-eyes-presidential-run-against-trump.html
"I think that the situation we're in is so grave, and the politics of the moment require independents, Republicans, and Democrats to come together in a way that can help form a new coalition, so that may well be a third-party option."
I completely agree with you. Any Republican standing up to #Trump right now deserves some respect, whether I agree with their politics or not.
While Cheney is now "Never Trump," she has not really committed to voting for Biden in 2024 either. I admire her speaking out against her GOP colleagues who continue to support Trump, & she MAY be willing to endorse her ideological rival but she hasn't explicitly done so yet. I think it was in her interview with Rachel Maddow that when asked if she would vote for Biden, Cheney said "whatever it takes." To me that was a carefully constructed non-endorsement.
More concerning to me is that in an interview with Charlie Sykes a few days later (link below), she opened the door to vote for a 3rd party candidate rather than Biden. If Liz were to throw her support to a 3rd party candidate, I can't see that helping anyone other than Trump. I'm baffled as to why she introduced this idea. I can understand her "non-endorsement" of Biden because Trump could croak & she might vote for Christie or Haley, but the 3rd party thing is weird.
https://www.thebulwark.com/podcast-episode/liz-cheney-a-clear-and-present-danger-2/
Donald Trump will never be the lesser of two evils. We must unite, look beyond partisanship, and vote in ways that will maintain the republic. Liz Cheney joins Charlie Sykes on today’s podcast. show notes: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/liz-cheney/oath-and-honor/9780316572064/?lens=little-brown
@Teri_Kanefield If that was ever going to happen, it would have happened in 2016. They had a tailor-made candidate in blatantly conservative Hillary Clinton, who speaks the language of Wall Street and K Street like an insider, because she is one of them. "You have to have a public opinion, and a private opinion," she said to a private gathering, remember?
The "conservative" establishment is not going to abandon the Fascist leader they chose.
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