OPINION:
Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney is the past, not the future, of the Republican Party, and she should be removed from House leadership immediately.
In order for Republicans to win back the House in 2022, they must remain unified and laser-focused on their “America First” message. Instead of engaging a circular firing squad, they need to take aim at President Joseph R. Biden and call out his radical, progressive, transformative agenda.
They need to make sure everyone in the country knows about the crisis at the Southern border, the one that President Biden created and is ignoring because of his open-border policies. They need to fight for blue-collar jobs, including those in the fossil-fuel industry, which President Biden wants to eliminate. They need to broadcast their support for Israel, as the Biden administration looks to reengage and embolden Iran. They need to stand up for law and order and law enforcement in the face of the “defund the police” movement and Black Lives Matter. They need to fight to reopen our children’s schools and seek to eliminate critical race theory, which undermines the greatness of our nation.
What they can’t do is continue to squabble among themselves about former President Donald J. Trump. Mr. Trump is no longer president and everyone in the party has acknowledged that fact, including Mr. Trump who is dedicating his time recruiting and endorsing future “American First” candidates. Everyone in the party but Mrs. Cheney, that is.
She continues to fan the flames of the Jan. 6 riot, blaming the former president, voting for his impeachment, and belittling the 73 million people who voted for him. She uses every media appearance to side with the Democratic left, accusing Republicans of buying into “the big lie,” of election fraud. She willingly (and what appears to be joyfully) gives the leftist media the meat that they need to report on GOP intraparty feuding, instead of focusing on the issues and policies Republicans have to message.
She’s become a distraction, and not a healthy one for the GOP, which is going to have to fight like hell in the next two years to stave off the radical left. Mrs. Cheney’s job as conference chair is to carry out the Republican message. She fails, repeatedly, almost every day, and therefore needs to be removed.
Secondly, Mrs. Cheney simply doesn’t represent the new Republican Party, one that turned more populist, working-class and non-interventionist under President Trump’s tenure.
Americans, for the most part, are unified in withdrawing our troops from Afghanistan. Withdrawal is going to be complicated, but Americans no longer are interested in foreign country nation-building and keeping our men and women in uniform stationed in the Middle East with no clear mission indefinitely.
Yet, Mrs. Cheney is a proud neoconservative and has supported the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq continually. When President Trump was in office, she worked with Democrats to pass an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act which placed restrictions on the then-president’s ability to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and Germany, essentially undermining President Trump’s efforts.
She’s out of touch with today’s electorate and could pose as a liability in future elections.
Lastly, President Trump remains the most powerful Republican in the country. His endorsement carries a lot of weight with the base, and therefore is coveted among those running for office. Just look at Texas — just two days ago Susan Wright, after being endorsed by the former president, beat 22 other candidates in what Texas Monthly dubbed the “Trump effect.”
The Never-Trump candidate, Michael Wood, who was lauded in the mainstream media, invited onto several national news shows and endorsed by Adam Kinzinger, came in ninth place with just 3% of the vote, only a half a percentage point better than WWE wrestler Dan Rodimer, who finished 11th.
There is no doubt, Mrs. Cheney holds great contempt for the former president — she’s certainly made that clear. The problem with her being in leadership is the status that gives her to pressure other members and potential candidates to distance themselves from the former president — something that would clearly not be in their best interest.
What is in everyone’s best interest within the GOP is to win. Win on a populist, America First agenda. Carry President Trump’s policies onward.
Mrs. Cheney’s backbiting is distracting from this effort. So until the day comes when the people of Wyoming vote her out of office (which they will), she should at least be removed from GOP House leadership. The direction of the party is moving forward, not backward. Mrs. Cheney represents the country-club, neocon establishment Republican of the past, which energized no one and accomplished nothing.
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