A hero, or so I’m told, has fallen.
In September 2021, Lesley Stahl interviewed Republican representative Liz Cheney for “60 Minutes.” During their discussion, Stahl pointed out Cheney had become a “hero to the liberals,” due to her opposition to Donald Trump and began asking her about policy positions she holds that differ from that of the typical American liberal.
Cheney said she’s pro-life, anti-Obamacare, and to top it all off, when asked if she supported waterboarding, “aka torture,” Cheney replied that waterboarding is not, in fact, torture, and “absolutely” supports it.
Now, almost a year later, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, who was responsible for approving the use of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques like waterboarding during his time in office, has been defeated in Wyoming’s Republican primary by pro-Trump candidate Harriet Hageman.
Good riddance, I say.
Cheney is a far-right reactionary, and her likely replacement by another far-right reactionary is borderline meaningless. So, why are liberals in the media in mourning?
On Aug. 17, The New York Times ran an op-ed titled, “In the ways that count, Liz Cheney won.” Of course, in much more real ways, she lost by a staggering 37 points. The Times additionally published opinion letters of support for Cheney.
On top of this, Time magazine ran a ridiculous column titled, “The GOP Just Borrowed a Soviet Skill and Disappeared Liz Cheney.” Right. I suppose we’ll begin seeing her face removed from photographs now. And perhaps even worse, CNN published this Star Wars-quoting nonsense of an article suggesting Cheney be given a position in the Biden administration.
Many of the writers cited above openly admit they do not agree with Cheney’s policy positions, but they bizarrely want her to have political power anyway, simply because she is opposed to Donald Trump.
It should, however, be remembered that her opposition to Trump began only after his loss in the 2020 election. Before this, she voted with his policies 93% of the time.
But here I am again, I hear the liberals respond, fixated on Cheney’s pesky, surely unimportant policy positions. What really matters is that she does not think the big bad orange man should be president again.
Liz Cheney’s reception by liberals in and outside the media should serve as a reminder that they have no principles. They don’t believe in anything. If they did, they would scoff at Cheney’s opposition to Trump. They would see it for what it truly is: too little, too late.
A starting point for respect, when it comes to anyone involved in politics, ought to be an opposition to Trump since he came down the escalator in 2015. A necessary starting point, but insufficient, because it is extremely easy to dislike Trump. We should not give someone a taxpayer salary based upon this criterion alone.
And we should not be sad, or disappointed either the U.S. has finally ridded itself of the Cheney family from public office. If liberals were serious about politics, they would be trying to win as many seats for themselves as possible, not mourning the thrashing of a far-right Republican by another far-right Republican.
Democrats and their liberal supporters must stop looking to so-called “sensible” conservatives who hate Donald Trump as potential allies. They need to face reality. Most Republicans support Trump. And the ones who don’t? Well, some of them might support waterboarding.
Jared Quigg (he/him) is a junior studying journalism and political science.
