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Liz Cheney’s End Game Is Not to Save Democracy but to Make Republican Authoritarianism Palatable
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) has been lauded by Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans alike for the stand she has taken against Trump’s “Big Lie” and for her refusal to deny, as so many Republicans do, that the January 6 assault on the Capitol was anything less than a well-organized and orchestrated criminal and violent insurrection spurred by Trump himself with the help of his usual operatives.
Without a doubt, in taking this stand, she has earned the disfavor of the current congressional Republicans who have effectively marginalized her as a political persona non grata in the party.
And she has played this martyrdom for all it’s worth, going all out in her efforts to paint Trump as the criminal he is.
It is useful to pause and reflect on what the end game of Cheney’s martyrdom might be. We should hardly be willing to see her “principled” stand as an act of political suicide.
It may well be she’s making the political calculation that the Party of Trump will be short-lived and that her martyrdom may elevate her if and when that “mainstream” Republican Party experiences a resurrection.
Knowing the machinations of her father, it may well be she has plans on seeking the presidency and is…
