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Why There is and Never Was a “Conservative Conscience” to be Salvaged from GOP
Hailed as a “profile courage” in multiple articles, Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) has been lavished with praise across the political spectrum, being praised alike by professors, “traditional” Republicans who served in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and both Bushes, and by Democratic senator Amy Klobuchar and House Majority Leader Stenny Hoyer.
She is a truth-teller, supposedly, whose rejection of the “big lie” that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump somehow marks a serious and substantial rift in the Republican Party.
Let’s be clear. It doesn’t. I’ve analyzed in several articles for PoliticusUsa (here, here, and here, for example) the anxious opportunism of the “traditional” GOP, such as the Lincoln Project Republicans and hosts of never-Trumpers, in trying to distinguish themselves from the party of Trump in order to rescue their traditional conservative ideology from going down with Trump’s ship of state.
The conservatism these traditionalists hope to salvage is one in which racism was politely coded in terms like “tax cuts,” “states’ rights,” and “small government,” as Lee Atwater made crystal clear in detailing his Southern Strategy. It is one in which elections were stolen much more stealthily through outrageous gerrymandering…
