August 16th may say a lot about the future of democracy in the United States.
It’s when Wyoming republicans will have to decide whether they applaud and support the courage of Liz Cheney, the Republican Vice Chairperson of the US congressional committee, very publicly examining the events leading up to the riots and attack on the US Capitol on January 6th or whether she must pay the political price for following her convictions in the face of her party’s enduring fealty to Donald Trump and lose her seat in the US Congress as a result.
Even though some influential Wyoming democrats are urging their democratic cohorts to change party to allow them to vote for Cheney in the Republican primary, the outcome seems almost certain. Short of a major upset, Cheney will lose the House seat she has held since 2016.
The ‘why’ lies at the heart of the present American political polarity.
Cheney will almost certainly lose because she has demonstrated a trait which appears sorely missing in the world today, the courage to put truth ahead of personal advancement, to give meaning to her Constitutional oath, and to be resolute against the enormous pressures on her to conform.
Before the televised January 6th congressional hearings, I knew only that Liz Cheney was the daughter of Dick Cheney, vice-president under George W. Bush, a principal driver of the disastrous and unnecessary Iraq war, a man for whom I felt only great disdain.
He left the vice presidency with a horrendous 13% approval rating, rather more than the minus I would have given him. It didn’t seem like Liz Cheney had much of a positive pedigree.
I’ve watched each of the televised congressional Jan. 6th hearings. I have been sickened by the graphic images of the attack, the obscene shouts from the surging crowd, the gallows erected and cries to “hang Mike Pence”, and the total and intentional unwillingness of the president for 187 minutes, to call on the insurrectionists to quit and peacefully go home.
In his 1955 Pulitzer prize-winning classic of political integrity, ‘Profiles in Courage’ John F Kennedy wrote that “A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or reward that quality in its chosen leaders today. Great crises produce great men and great deeds of courage.”
We are in the midst of a great crisis in American democracy and democracies around the world. What appears most lacking is that courage to push back and stand strong against the popular forces which would readily swap conformity for the difficult choices’ freedom demands.
Having emerged from being a member of the ultra-conservative Trumpist cult who went on TV and described democrats as “the party of anti-Semitism, the party of infanticide, the party of socialism” and voted for the Trump line ninety-three percent of the time, Cheney has recently been applauded by leading democrats as “someone who saved American democracy.” This may very well be true.
It is generally believed that her epiphany came late in January 2021 after the spineless Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy, who had told Republican leaders, “I’ve had it with this guy,” and that he was headed to Mar-a-Lago to tell Trump to resign, crawled back from his meeting with the president like a punished puppy.
Just like so many others, he feared the retribution that could be organized against him and destroy his raw ambition to become Speaker of the House. He decided to toe the line.
There is not a lot of courage around these days, and it must have been obvious to Cheney that she was standing virtually alone.
It was a short step from there for her to become the republican’s most vocal critic, not only of Trump but even more of his followers.
For the republican leadership, she quickly became toxic, and the House Republican Caucus voted her out of leadership. Despite having successfully represented her State in Congress, Cheney was formally expelled by her party in Wyoming.
The January 6th Committee leadership Cheney told the Times, “Is the most important thing I’ve ever done professionally and maybe the most important thing I ever do.”
I’ve been most struck by Cheney’s quiet but forceful demeanor. She never grandstands and obviously inspires her colleagues and those around her. Following the explosive testimony of former White House aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, who is only twenty-six and who must have had to overcome enormous pressure not to testify, she reached out to Cheney to help her gain the needed courage.
At the end of the session with Hutchinson’s testimony, Cheney warmly embraced her. One could feel the sharing of courage.
Liz Cheney may lose this primary. But it is unlikely she will disappear from the political stage, even potentially as a candidate for the presidency.
She has firmly thrown down the gauntlet when, at the end of her opening remarks to the January 6th committee, she said: “Tonight, I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.”
Liz Cheney will not have to share that dishonor even if she loses the Wyoming primary. I’m looking forward to the chance to switch parties and vote for her for something bigger.
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