In a lot of disagreements its best to ask ‘How do you want this to end?’
Not only does that usually end some of the fighting, it gives people a hint if this is just a disagreement, or if this is the end. Because if there is no mutually agreeable end game, then what’s the point.
We could have this conversation about Aaron Rodgers and the Packers, but we need to have this conversation about Liz Cheney and the Republicans.
Cheney, as you know, is an outspoken Never-Trumper. She is losing support in both her home state of Wyoming and on Capitol Hill.
CNN had a piece yesterday:
Liz Cheney's days as the No. 3 in House GOP leadership appear to be numbered, with speculation growing about her replacement and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy contending she has failed to do her job in driving the party's message to take back the majority.
Cheney has grown increasingly isolated within her conference amid her feud with former President Donald Trump, a battle that intensified after she was one of just 10 Republicans who backed his impeachment on a charge of inciting the January 6 insurrection and as she's called out his lie that he actually won the 2020 election.
But on Tuesday, McCarthy claimed her impeachment vote wouldn't cost her the job. Instead, he said that she has not done enough to keep the party unified behind a singular message to win back the majority next year, the clearest sign yet that he might seek to oust her as soon as next week.
"I have heard from members, concerned about her ability to carry out the job as conference chair, to carry out the message," McCarthy told Fox News on Tuesday morning. "We all need to be working as one, if we're able to win the majority. Remember, majorities are not given, they are earned, and that's about the message about going forward."
The McCarthy comments cement that Cheney’s protection in Congress is fading fast.
The end-game for Republicans appears to be to bounce Cheney from Congressional leadership, then see if voters bounce her from office.
But what does Cheney hope to accomplish by remaining 100% Never-Trump? Does she see a path to the White House? A path to the U.S. Senate? A path to riches?
MSNBC had a story on that.
To the naked eye, Cheney’s behavior since she cast her vote for Trump’s second impeachment in response to his supporters’ Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol would suggest that she’s eager to sacrifice her political career on the altar of principle. But since no politician thinks like that, what’s going on here?
The piece ends with this.
To the extent that her consistent poking of the bear can align with her political self-interest, she’s evidently made the calculation that there’s no use in going halfway anti-Trump. Cheney didn’t just begin speaking her mind against the former president on Jan. 6. House conservatives were furious at her last summer for breaking from the Trump line. You don’t need much of a heretical record at all to be tagged as the “anti-Trump candidate” in a competitive Republican primary, and she had already accrued more than enough demerits to earn the title before she voted for impeachment. Rather than hedge now, and launch a transparently false “I’m the real Trump candidate” campaign that would only emphasize how she isn’t, she can emphasize how she backs down to no one, and always fights! A “wrong” record on Trump can put her in primary danger, but perhaps commitment to a vibe can get her out of it.
That, and a lot of money. Though she may not be popular among the Republican base, the remnants of the Resistance and fellow anti-Trump Republicans will always make sure that the rare Republican who stood up to Trump isn’t lacking in funds.
Money. Why does it always come back to money with these people?
First, people like Cheney and Mitt Romney and the other Never-Trumpers do see themselves sacrificing themselves on the ‘altar of principle.’ They see themselves as the Marble Man, standing above the rabble. They are convinced that they are smarter, and better, than everyone else.
There is also this sense among many Never-Trumpers of going ‘back.’ Somehow they think that conservatives in this country want to go back to the Bush days of going-along to get-along. The days when moderation and serving Wall Street and the Chamber of Commerce was the goal for Republicans.
Is that what Liz Cheney wants to go back to? A slightly different party of corporate America than the Democrats? A big-government version of Republicans who claim to stand for the people, but really don’t care outside of Washington, D.C.?
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