Original link: https://sehseh.substack.com/p/40b
On August 16, 2022, Liz Cheney’s family background and political record were trampled heavily. The people who trample on her are not Democrats or liberals, but the Republicans she was born and raised in Sri Lanka.
She is a congressman from Wyoming and the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney. She has a proud family background and a bright political future. My father was the vice president of the United States, secretary of defense, and chief of staff at the White House. He was a well-spoken and pivotal figure in conservatives (he had been to Taiwan a few years ago); my mother was an influential conservative historian. Chaney used to be a high-level State Department executive and is familiar with Middle East and Near East affairs; in 2004, he assisted his father in winning the re-election campaign; in 2016, he was elected to the Federal House of Representatives. to make.
During her tenure in the House of Representatives, her conservative ideology was clear, and she was never afraid to confront liberals. For example, her sister Mary (Mary Cheney) is gay, but she is adamant against legalizing same-sex marriage. Chaney was quickly promoted to the No. 3 Republican House caucus leader. People began to expect that she would one day become the Republican’s first female Speaker of the House, or even the first female presidential candidate, or even the first female president.
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Trump, the Republican ‘King Maker’ and ‘King Killer’
On the 16th, the Republican Party conducted the primary election for the federal House of Representatives election to be launched in November this year. Chaney, who was seeking three consecutive terms, not only lost, but also lost miserably. The vote rate was only 28.9%, less than his opponent Hajman ( Harriet Hageman). How did she get down here? Because Chaney offended one person: Donald Trump, the top leader of the US Republican Party today.
This year’s election season, Trump has proved through party primaries after party that he is both a Republican kingmaker and a Republican kingslayer.
Ironically, from 2017 to 2021, during Trump’s occupation of the White House, Chaney voted on bills or resolutions in the House of Representatives as high as 93% with Trump, even higher than Trump’s close associate May who later became the White House chief of staff. Doss (Mark Meadows). She used to call herself a “loyal Trumpist”, trying to build the Republican Party into a “Trump party” and arguing with her colleagues about who was more “Trumpier” than whom.
On January 6, 2021, that all changed completely.
Trump lost the previous year’s presidential election, losing 7.04 million popular votes and 74 electoral votes, but he refused to face the reality and instead claimed “election fraud” with the honor of the current president. Through all kinds of legal channels and other ways to “turn the table”, the result is to repeatedly hit the wall and bring humiliation, which is both shameful and pathetic. On January 6, Trump incited his supporters to turn into a mob and stormed into Congress, which was in the process of certifying the results of the presidential election, causing extensive damage and causing many deaths and injuries.
On January 6, 2021, a mob supporting US President Trump stormed the Capitol Hill and violently clashed with the police (AP)
“It is unprecedented for a president of the United States to betray his office so much”
After the Capitol Hill riots, Chaney issued a statement that even Democrats would nod to say yes: “The President of the United States has called on this mob, assembled this mob, and ignited the fire. Everything that followed, was He caused it. If it hadn’t been for him, none of this would have happened. He could have stepped in immediately and forcefully to end the violence, but he didn’t. There is no precedent for a president of the United States to betray his office and his constitutional oath.”
In theory, conservatives should value social norms, political norms, law and order, and Christian faith-based ethics more than liberals. Trump, whose conduct, knowledge, and talents are not like a king, has been in chaos for 4 years. At the end of his term, he has acted so recklessly, which has seriously damaged the country’s democratic system. What should the Republicans do?
Chaney led the way, and the top Republicans followed suit. Some people sternly condemned it, some resigned to protest, but Trump himself never admitted his fault or apologized. He always insisted that “the 2020 election was seriously fraudulent”, “Democrats and Biden stole the election”, and continued to gain the approval of a large number of conservative voters. .
In recent years, the polarization and tribalization of American politics and society also reached critical mass at this time (press: refers to the quality of materials required to maintain the chain reaction of nuclear fission), triggering a chain reaction.
rebellious republican iron lady
Seeing something wrong, the top Republicans, from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, either shifted focus or turned silent, returning to the Trump-dominated accomplice structure. But Chaney really took the spirit, ideas and principles of American conservatives seriously, and borrowed the courage to continue to denounce Trump.
On January 13, 2021, the House of Representatives voted on Trump’s impeachment case. Only 10 of 221 Republican members of the House of Representatives voted in favor. Chaney is the first of these “ten criminals”. In July of the same year, the House of Representatives established a committee to investigate the January 6 Capitol Hill riots. Chaney was one of only two Republican members and served as vice chairman. Because of this, she has been labeled as a “traitor” by many comrades in the party, although the person who really “betrayed” the Republican Party was Trump.
Last May, the Republican House caucus was ordered by Trump to clear the door and remove Chaney from his leadership. She is still in the party primaries this year, and Trump has backed her opponent Hajman (the only political qualification worth mentioning is Trump). Despite her incumbency, only two of her 260 fellow Republicans dared to publicly support her. She fought alone until August 16, seeking benevolence.
On January 6, 2021, the U.S. Congress was preparing to confirm the election of Democratic Party Biden as president, but Trump, then the U.S. president, encouraged the public to “go to the Capitol” on Twitter, which eventually led to a violent incident in which the Capitol Hill was once occupied by a mob. . (Associated Press)
From Lincoln to Trump, the Republican Party is in full swing
It has been 168 years since the founding of the American Republican Party, and there have been presidents such as Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan , but it took Trump only 4 years to completely take over and domesticate the Republican Party, and make it completely degenerate.
Today, the leadership of the Republican Party has no intention of setting things right, and is willing to help the tyrants. I saw a congresswoman with 6 years of experience trying to turn the tide and bring her lone minister back to the sky, but in the end, the whole party abandoned her.
It wasn’t just Chaney who had a bleak end. Of the 10 Republican congressmen who voted in favor of Trump’s second impeachment, 4 later gave up re-election, and 4 were defeated by the “Trumps” in the party’s primary election (Chaney lost the worst), only Washington State’s Dan Newhouse and California’s David Valadao have temporarily retained their political careers. In other words, Trump has the Zeus of today’s Republican Party, and the party votes are lightning in his hands.
You know, Wyoming, where Chaney was born, is not only a red state (Republican territory), but also a “ruby red”: In 2020, Trump won nearly 70% of the votes in Wyoming, and 68% in 2016; last The Democratic presidential candidate to win the state was Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. There are 90 seats in both chambers of the state legislature, with fewer than 10 Democrats; all state-level public offices, from the governor to the state attorney general, are Republicans.
On August 16, 2022, U.S. Representative Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming, delivered a defeat speech after losing the party’s primary election. (AP)
The mantis arm stops the car and also stops Trump
Analysts have long expected that Chaney’s insistence on single-handedly singleing out Trump, in order to remove Trump’s curse and remove Trump’s legacy for the Republican Party and American politics, is not only a matter of knowing it is impossible, but sacrificing his own rapid rise in the party. A bright future, but also a moth to the flame, political suicide. For Chaney, all of this has no real interests at all, just for beliefs, principles, values, just to give himself, to his family, and to give an explanation to history.
After losing the election, 56-year-old Chaney is still not going to give up, and wants to continue to be a moth to the flames. At this moment, Trump has not yet announced the 2024 presidential election. If he decides to make a comeback, no one in the Republican Party will dare to stand up to him, but Chaney may fight against Taiwan-her focus is not on being aggressive, but on occupying the news and The commanding heights of public opinion prevent Trump from returning to the White House and harm the United States and the world.
If so, Chaney would act like a “kill vehicle” in a missile defense system: it blasts off into the air and hits an incoming enemy missile directly, destroying everything.
Yes, the fire-fighting moth can also be transformed into a weapon to kill missiles. (Finish)
About the Author｜ Yan Jiyu (Master of the Institute of Chinese Literature, National Taiwan University, has long been engaged in interdisciplinary translation and international news reporting and commentary work, and is currently the executive deputy editor-in-chief of “Wind Media”.)
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This article is reprinted from: https://sehseh.substack.com/p/40b
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