Liz Cheney Will Not 'Embolden The Liar'

Say what you will about Liz Cheney. We know we have.

Today is the day House Republicans will make Liz Cheney walk the plank out of their leadership for the grievous sin of refusing to sign on to the party's new foundational Big Lie, which in a narrow sense is that Donald Trump won an election he lost, but in a broader sense is that democracy itself doesn't count unless the result favors Republicans. The vote is happening in a 9 a.m. meeting, so they might be doing the deed as you read this.

We've already discussed the weirdness of having positive feelings toward anything a Cheney does, but we've also explained why it's important.

Last night, Cheney rose to speak on the House floor, and we figure you should probably watch it, because we think we may look back on it, as well as today's vote to cancel Cheney for wrongthink, as some kind of turning point in American history, when the Republican Party officially and entirely ceased being an American political party, and completed its transition into a full-blown anti-American domestic insurgency. They've been trending that way for years, but we think they might just be finishing the job this week.

Here's the video and the transcript. We'll bold parts we think are especially important, as Cheney seems to have decided that if they don't like her calling out their fascist Big Lie, she's just going to piss them off louder and louder going forward:

"I know the topic is cancel culture. I have some thoughts about thatbut tonight I rise to discuss freedom and our constitutional duty to protect it. Mr. Speaker, I have been privileged to see firsthand how powerful and fragile freedom is. Twenty-eight years ago, I stood outside a polling place, a schoolhouse in western Kenya. Soldiers had chased away people who were lined up to vote. A few hours later they came streaming back in, risking further attack, undaunted in their determination to exercise their right to vote.

"In 1992, I sat across a table from a young mayor in Russia and I listened to him talk of his dream from liberating his nation from communism. Years later, for his dedication to the cause of freedom, Boris Nemtsov was assassinated by Vladimir Putin's thugs.

"In Warsaw, in 1990, I listened to a young Polish woman tell me that her greatest fear was that people would forget. They would forget what it was like to live under Soviet domination. That they would forget the price of freedom.

"Three men, an immigrant who escaped Castro's totalitarian regime; a young man who grew up behind the Iron Curtain and became his country's minister of defense; and a dissident who spent years in the Soviet gulag have all told me it was the miracle of America captured in the words of President Ronald Reagan that inspired them.

"And I have seen the power of faith and freedom. I listened to Pope John Paul II speak to thousands in Nairobi in 1985. And 19 years [later], I watched that same pope take my father's hands, look in his eyes and say God bless America.

"God has blessed America, Mr. Speaker, but our freedom only survives if we protect it. If we honor our oath taken before God in this chamber to support and defend the Constitution if we recognize threats to freedom when they arise.

"Today we face a threat America has never seen before. A former president, who provoked a violent attack on this Capitol in an effort to steal the election, has resumed his aggressive effort to convince Americans that the election was stolen from him. He risks inciting further violence. Millions of Americans have been misled by the former president, they have heard only his words, but not the truth. As he continues to undermine our democratic process, sowing seeds of doubt about whether democracy really works at all.

"I am a conservative Republican, and the most conservative of conservative principles is reverence for the rule of law.

"The Electoral College has voted. More than 60 state and federal courts, including multiple judges the former president appointed, have rejected his claims. The Trump Department of Justice investigated the former president's claims of widespread fraud and found no evidence to support them. The election is over. That is the rule of law. That is our constitutional process. Those who refuse to accept the rulings of our courts are at war with the Constitution. Our duty is clear. Every one of us who has sworn the oath must act to prevent the unraveling of our democracy.

"This is not about policy. This is not about partisanship. This is about our duty as Americans. Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar. I will not participate in that.I will not sit back and watch in silence, while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president's crusade to undermine our democracy.

"As the party of Reagan, Republicans have championed democracy, won the Cold War, and defeated the Soviet communists. Today, America is on the cusp of another Cold War, this time with Communist China. Attacks against our democratic process and the rule of law empower our adversaries and feed Communist propaganda that American democracy is a failure. We must speak the truth, our election was not stolen, and America has not failed.

"I received a message last week from a Gold Star father who said said standing up for the truth honors all who gave all. We must all strive to be worthy of the sacrifice of those who have died for our freedom. They are the patriots Katharine Lee Bates described in the words of 'America the Beautiful' when she wrote 'Oh beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife, who more than self, their country loved, and mercy, more than life' .

"Ultimately, Mr. Speaker, this is at the heart of what our oath requires, that we love our country more. That we love her so much that we will stand above politics to defend her. That we will do everything in our power to protect our Constitution and our freedom that has been paid for by the blood of so many. We must love America so much that we will never yield in her defense. That is our duty."

There's some Republican bullshit pablum in there about Reagan, and bless anybody's heart that believes it.

But as for "remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar"? As for Cheney SAYING IT AGAIN that Donald Trump "provoked a violent attack on this Capitol in an effort to steal the election"? As for calling him out for misleading millions of Americans and attempting to literally destroy democracy? Show us the lie.

With that being said, in case you missed it, the Washington Post had some really interesting reporting this weekend on how this Cheney situation came to pass, and what she plans to do next. Therein was a fascinating look at how self-deluded and brainwashed the Republican Party has become as it pledges its undying allegiance to literally the worst, stupidest loser human that God ever made.

The scene is a Republican retreat in April. The Post reports that it's one of the moments when Cheney realized the GOP's delusions about Trump and the power he holds over them were far deeper than she knew before. It seems they're not even willing to tell themselves the truth, not only about the election, but about how deeply loathed their orange shitmouth false Christ really is:

When staff from the National Republican Congressional Committee rose to explain the party's latest polling in core battleground districts,they left out a key finding about Trump's weakness,declining to divulge the information even when directly questioned about Trump's support by a member of Congress, according to two people familiar with what transpired.

Trump's unfavorable ratings were 15 points higher than his favorable ones in the core districts, according to the full polling results, which were later obtained by The Washington Post. Nearly twice as many voters had a strongly unfavorable view of the former president as had a strongly favorable one.

Cheney was alarmed, she later told others, in part because Republican campaign officials had also left out bad Trump polling news at a March retreat for ranking committee chairs. Both instances, she concluded, demonstrated that party leadership was willing to hide information from their own members to avoid the truth about Trump and the possible damage he could do to Republican House members, even though the NRCC denied any such agenda.

Trump's polling sucks in key battlegrounds Republicans need if they want to retake the House. Like really sucks. And Republicans don't even have the spine to admit that to themselves even when the object of their worship isn't around .

How ridiculously, utterly pathetic.

That's one delusion we hope they don't recover from anytime soon. If they want to go down with that broken ship, bon fuckin' voyage .

In summary and in conclusion, today is the day the Liz Cheney thing is happening. This is where the Republican Party is on May 12, 2021. Put it in your time capsule.

[ USA Today / Washington Post ]

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