Recently the political news has been mostly about Liz Cheney, U.S. Representative for Wyoming\u2019s at-large congressional district. Apparently, she is about to be defrocked as the House Republican Conference Chair, the third- highest position in the House Republican leadership for speaking out against Donald Trump. She has been a high profile target of the Republican right since her vote to impeach Trump back in January.<\/p>\n
Her latest sin, in the eyes of her party\u2019s reactionary right wingers, is that she keeps telling the truth. On May 5th she published an opinion piece in the Washington Post <\/em> blaming Trump for causing the January 6th attack on the Capitol and debunking the \u201cBig Lie\u201d that he won the 2020 election. She also called for a criminal investigation of the January attack and a bipartisan review with the power to seek and find the facts. She challenged fellow Republicans to uphold constitutional government and urged them not to follow the anti-democratic Trump cult of personality.<\/p>\n In doing so Cheney is a present day Margaret Chase Smith, the Republican Senator from Maine, who in 1950 gave her \u201cDeclaration of Conscience\u201d speech on the floor of the Senate that helped lead to Senator Joe McCarthy\u2019s censure and downfall in 1954. Like Smith, Cheney is challenging her party to acknowledge the truth and take corrective actions. As with Smith, most Republicans have taken refuge in silence while some lash out at her for being disloyal. Smith\u2019s denunciation of the \u201cThe Four Horseman of Calumny\u2014Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear,\u201d seems an apt description of where the Republicans find themselves today.<\/p>\n Right now it looks as if Cheney will lose her leadership job tomorrow. Where are her rank and file Republican colleagues on these issues? Do they really believe that Cheney as one of the most conservative members of congress should be sacked because she spoke out? With the exception of Senator Mitt Romney and Representative Adam Kinzinger few have publicly voiced disapproval of ousting Cheney.<\/p>\n Mendacity or amnesia seem to be the refuge for congressional Republicans at the present. They simply want to put the events of January 2021 in the rear view mirror and move on when honesty would serve them better. Doing so would help mend the Republican Party and restore a strong conservative opposition to the Democrats. We need two strong parties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recently the political news has been mostly about Liz Cheney, U.S. Representative for Wyoming\u2019s at-large congressional district. Apparently, she is about to be defrocked as the House Republican Conference Chair, the third- highest position in the House Republican leadership for speaking out against Donald Trump. She has been a high profile target of the Republican…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-robert-fischer"],"yoast_head":"\n