The stunning and brave decision of Liz Cheney to back a Democrat extends the tradition of the Trump-afflicted spurning conservatives.
Word has come out that the exiled Liz Cheney has lent her support to a candidate for the upcoming midterm election. Elissa Slotkin in Michigan has excitedly announced Liz will appear on her behalf on Tuesday. She might want to rethink this “big news”, as far as her campaign is concerned.
Cheney has been roundly booted from her post as a Republican representative of Wyoming, a thorough repudiation as she was an incumbent who suffered the worst primary defeat seen in generations. Cheney was dropped faster than a high school quarterback dropping Advanced Calculus in order to remain on the team, losing to her challenger by over 35 percentage points. Why any candidate would welcome that kind of toxic character is a mystery, but less mysterious is Cheney evolving into the prototypical True Conservative™.
Before her snuggling up to Slotkin, Cheney lent her political heft behind Katie Hobbs in Arizona. Clearly inspired by Kari Lake’s vocal support of Donald Trump, Cheney surprised no one when she gave voice to Lake’s opponent – and Hobbs promptly has begun to fade in the polls. Liz offers nothing to a Democrat – be they a candidate or a voter – but her endorsements are not about helping them win as it is bolstering her credentials with her new acolytes.
Cheney has established her Never Trump credentials already with her impotent January 6 Committee work, and now she is finishing her application with the True Conservative™ contingent by completing the last requirement. The foundational practice of those lecturing and hectoring anyone on the right is to boldly proclaim support for Democrats; Cheney is now simply awaiting her new ID card to be printed up.
The NeverTrump/True Conservative crowd has been a remarkable case study in political movements in that they are boisterous in their stances, supported in the media circles, and touted as brave and noble in their messaging, all while being shown as a completely ineffectual lot. Looking over the years we see a group that has no lack of voices and invective, yet they possess nothing in the form of a track record. Note how half a dozen years have elapsed and today they are leaning on the same message as always: You need to vote Democrat to save this country.
The apparent genesis of these impotent messengers began in 2016, and as they firmly stated their opposition to President Trump they were loudly hailed in the press – that is, by other Trump opponents. Then, over the years, they have held fast to positioning themselves as the arbiters of genuine conservatism, all while staying consistent with the message.
Bill Kristol clings to his mantle of a cerebral conservative while he still touts Democratic candidates. His outlet The Bulwark continues with its insistence on explaining all that is wrong with the Republican party. The Lincoln Project has only existed as a bomb-throwing entity that shames the conservative underpinnings of its Presidential namesake. Prominent columnists like Jennifer Rubin or Jonah Goldberg make hay of how they repudiate all they see wrong with the party. Then there is Max Boot.
I actually have to applaud the pedantic columnist. For years Boot has gotten away with rewriting the same column continuously, delivering in tireless fashion the way he is no longer a Republican and pointing out the flaws as he describes them. I challenged boot years ago on the fact that he routinely boosts the Democrat cause, never once supporting a Republican who would forward his claimed conservative values. He responded to my piece in a mousy fashion.
Boot does not grasp here that he was making a tacit admission that he was not influencing things in a productive manner. This was after years of his beleaguering those supporting Trump and declaring what is not conservative values, and then in the midterms, he was demanding people vote Democrat. He had not inspired anything approaching a conservative upswell, and today he is STILL selling that same message: voting Democrat sends a message to the Republicans.
This underscores the neutered nature of these proclaimed elevated thinkers of the True Conservative™ movement. How is it that after all of these years they have not managed to inspire anyone to rise up and reinstall the conservative spirit they claim has been lost? Where are the candidates who have arrived that carry the approved message and are supported by these groups and pundits? It has been years of these mewling gasbags, and they have not managed to inspire anyone.
This is the reality the intelligentsia refuses to acknowledge. They have preached and condescended for years, declaring themselves the smart minds who recognize what is truly conservative, and all they managed is to support a party that defies conservative principles by rote. The idiocy is beneath that of a vegan getting upset at pescatarians and as a result, they promote a barbeque competition to make their case.
The prospect of a massive red wave of Republican election victories in the coming days highlights the vacancy of these pundits. They are so busy telling others how they have a flawed thought process because they need to distract from the fact they have not won over any minds after all these years.