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/

@Teri_Kanefield

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.

@marcolgato

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)

Cory Doctorow’s Vision for a Just Tech Revolution

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@Teri_Kanefield We need our heroes to be pure. We need our enemies to have no good deeds or qualities attached to them. We have lost the reality of being human and seeing for what it is playing out in front of us. It’s the pure good/pure evil dichotomy that is readily consumed. The reality is that without the good parts of bad actors, we’d never solve a crime. Also, our heroes were never pure. Mortals all.
@Catawu @Teri_Kanefield I was angry at Adam Kinzinger when he stood up against Trump but then remained the same partisan hack on every other issue, including voting rights.
@theandil @Teri_Kanefield Exactly. But we weren’t about to turn away what he was offering as we battled the Jabba The Hutt.
@Catawu @Teri_Kanefield i am in Texas, not happy he suddenly moved here

@theandil @Catawu @Teri_Kanefield

Who moved to Texas? Kinzinger?

Did he think he can run for governor or senator from Texas?

@LiveByReason @Catawu @Teri_Kanefield yes apparently he moved to The Woodlands, TX this fall. Uber Trumper Morgan Luttrell is the incumbent, so far running unopposed but Adam has something up his sleeve, this is probably why he is against voting rights legislation 😳
@LiveByReason @Catawu @Teri_Kanefield yes he moved to Texas this year. Other than he supports Ukraine & doesn’t like Trump, he’s a MAGAt on every other issue.

@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!"

@theandil @Catawu @Teri_Kanefield I think some politicians discern between "ethical" and "unethical" vote stealing.
@cherold @theandil @Catawu @Teri_Kanefield the moment you do that, you have embraced the dark side.
there is no ‘ethical’ vote theft.
@cherold @theandil @Catawu @Teri_Kanefield You mean legal voter suppression measures like purging roles, closing popular polling places, or denying water to people standing in line, as opposed to large scale voter fraud like what was attempted in Georgia by the Turnip team.
@CWilbur @theandil @Catawu @Teri_Kanefield Yep. I don't think people like Kinzinger have much issue with those. That's just "politics." :-|

@Catawu @Teri_Kanefield

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.

@Teri_Kanefield I harbor uneasy feelings toward Liz, probably mostly because of her father's legacy, and probably because of a thing or two she said at one time or another, but even I can see that woman is 100% American patriot, and not that 'rah rah dress in american flags' fake patriotism. Too bad her faker patriot party members are too deluded to know the difference.
@Teri_Kanefield I can’t understand people who can’t understand that, as a country, we are better off with her saying what she is saying rather than what anyone who is in good standing with the current iteration of the GOP is saying.
@Teri_Kanefield the only thing that can save the Republican party is for it to lose, and lose big on November '24. If Republicans lose support even from their own voters it is the only thing that can break the cycle of craziness that has consumed the Republican Party for the last three of four decades.

@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.

@birwin @William_Robison @Teri_Kanefield There is no universe in which Clinton/Obama/Biden are anything but center-right.
@gcvsa @birwin @William_Robison @Teri_Kanefield
There is no universe where Bernie Sanders, Jill Stein, or Ralph Nader do Jack Squat to materially change our world, even if they actually cared and weren't grifting for love, clout, or $$$.
@Okanogen @birwin @William_Robison @Teri_Kanefield Nice straw man you propped up there. Maybe put him out in your garden to scare the birds away. Political debate doesn't really seem to be your strong suit.

@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.

@William_Robison @Teri_Kanefield
💯 but I don't give a single fuck if they survive, only that they are permanently defeated.
@Teri_Kanefield
I always have a huge amount of respect for people who do exactly what Liz Cheney is doing. It's extremely hard to step out of line with your own party/ideology when your own colleagues are wrong. You see this with Republicans who come to understand the scientific realties of climate change.
@Teri_Kanefield Agree 100%. As Raskin said, we disagree on everything but one issue, and that issue happens to be the most important issue there is.
@Teri_Kanefield Has she endorsed Biden? A quick Google search only shows endorsements for House and Senate candidates (important, but). Watching her Rachel Maddow interview I didn't hear a full-throated "Vote for Biden to save democracy".
@Teri_Kanefield I don't know, Teri. She is her father's daughter. Yeah, she did make a stand and it cost her dearly. But why didn't she stand up before then? She could have voted to Impeach, but she didn't. Twice. She knew he was a snake. I'm not buying this snake oil. She's just flavoring hers a bit for a possible run for herself. I'm not angry at her. I just don't buy what she's selling. I've never bought what the Cheneys sold. She and her dad have benefitted too much over the years.

@e_t_wright @Teri_Kanefield

She did vote to impeach for the second impeachment.

@Teri_Kanefield One wishes she were actually reformed, rather than merely seeking to re-establish the power of her father's arm of the party, which, itself paved the way (nay, greased the rails) for the Trump presidency.

@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.

@singletona @Teri_Kanefield Cheney seems to be someone with whom you could have a principled conversation or negotiation. Most of the current Rs don't even seem to recognize when they're arguing in bad faith.

@Teri_Kanefield I have seldom agreed with a Cheney, but I'm with her in this fight.

NEVER vote for a Republican.

@Teri_Kanefield I tried to explain that about her Wyo bid. She’s GOP and scum but not a fascist. In Wyo she would have stopped the public land grab by the private sector her opponent is fine with. She understood the value of public lands to Wyo as a state.
@Teri_Kanefield I may consider voting in my state’s GOP primary for a change to keep DJ off the later ballot. My sis and rest of family are also doing it in their state.
@Teri_Kanefield agree! I was thinking last night about Giuliani. I lived in NYC in the late 90s and early 2000s when Rudy was mayor, and at the time I did not like him, did not agree with him, but I did not despise him either. He was a person you could disagree with and still respect. As opposed to, now.
@tersenurse @Teri_Kanefield https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/clydehaberman/rudy-giuliani-was-always-this-bad He’s always been a despicable racist, a police brutality enthusiast and a demagogue. At best you can say he’s more obviously pathetic now.
Rudy Giuliani Was Always This Bad, He Just Swapped Manhattan For Ukraine

"A small man in search of a balcony," as one columnist memorably described him. Nothing has changed.

BuzzFeed News
@Teri_Kanefield She is in favor of the gerrymandering, and the voter purges, and the voter ID laws, and just about any other legal chicanery the GOP cooks up in order to cling to power. But she stops short when it comes to supporting an outright coup. I give her a wee bit of credit for that, but only a wee bit. She is not, nor will she ever be, our friend.

@Teri_Kanefield

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

Liz Cheney Eyes Third-Party Presidential Run Against Trump

Liz Cheney, the far-right former senator from Wyoming with one of the most conservative voting records in the Senate, says she is considering running for President on a third-party ticket because s…

Boing Boing

@Teri_Kanefield

"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."

@Teri_Kanefield A more cynical approach would be to assume that, regardless of whether she has read the book, she is concerned about her own family's generational power and the threat that a realignment of the GOP power structure would be to that. In any case - I will readily welcome her telling people to vote against Trump.
@Teri_Kanefield Certainly respect what she’s been doing and wish more GOP had the backbone and moral fortitude to do so as well.
@Teri_Kanefield @briankrebs To keep trump away from the White House, I’d crawl over broken glass nekkked to vote for her if it comes to that. Switch parties to get to vote for her in the primary? Happily.
@Teri_Kanefield @briankrebs Also, Cheney did the right thing although she knew she would lose her seat in Congress. This is very hard for office holders—which is why so many of them behave cowardly.

@Teri_Kanefield

I completely agree with you. Any Republican standing up to #Trump right now deserves some respect, whether I agree with their politics or not.

@Teri_Kanefield You said it, exactly. I would never vote for her in the general election, but I switched parties and voted for her in the primary, then switched back and voted against her winning opponent.

She has integrity. That can't be denied. And perhaps enough influence to help ensure that Trump never "serves" again.
@Teri_Kanefield I think progressives who are mad at the dnc should take heed about this too. They can't let their short-term pride create long-term consequences for them. As the saying goes, a vote is a chess move, not a valentine
@Teri_Kanefield I hope to see the day my differences with Liz Cheney once again become of any importance. But until then we are firm allies.

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/

Liz Cheney: A Clear and Present Danger - The Bulwark Podcast - The Bulwark

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 

The Bulwark
@Teri_Kanefield for sure, I agree and feel similarly

@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.