In a new opinion published in the Washington Post on Wednesday, Liz Cheney stood up for her principles and warned the GOP they are at a turning point to “decide whether we are going to choose truth and fidelity to the Constitution.”
I am a conservative Republican, and the most conservative of conservative values is reverence for the rule of law. Each of us swears an oath before God to uphold our Constitution. The electoral college has spoken. More than 60 state and federal courts, including multiple Trump-appointed judges, have rejected the former president’s arguments, and refused to overturn election results. That is the rule of law; that is our constitutional system for resolving claims of election fraud.
Cheney compared the GOP choice to join Trump’s crusade to deligitimize the legal 2020 election as foreign, when other nations endure violence with changes in leadership. She invoked Ronald Reagan’s description of the peaceful transfer of power as “the American miracle.”
While embracing or ignoring Trump’s statements might seem attractive to some for fundraising and political purposes, that approach will do profound long-term damage to our party and our country. Trump has never expressed remorse or regret for the attack of Jan. 6 and now suggests that our elections, and our legal and constitutional system, cannot be trusted to do the will of the people. This is immensely harmful, especially as we now compete on the world stage against Communist China and its claims that democracy is a failed system.
Cheney championed a bipartisan review by commission of the January 6 attack at the Capitol “critical to defeat the misinformation and nonsense circulating in the press and on social media.” She rebuked BLM and antifa violence of last summer as illegal, but “a different problem with a different solution.”
Cheney implored Republicans to stand for conservative principles including the rule of law, limited government, a strong national defense, and prosperity and opportunity brought by low taxes and fiscal conservatism — instead of the “dangerous and anti-democratic Trump cult of personality.”
And she also warned of the dangers conservatives face on the other side of the aisle.
There is much at stake now, including the ridiculous wokeness of our political rivals, the irrational policies at the border and runaway spending that threatens a return to the catastrophic inflation of the 1970s. Reagan formed a broad coalition from across the political spectrum to return America to sanity, and we need to do the same now. We know how. But this will not happen if Republicans choose to abandon the rule of law and join Trump’s crusade to undermine the foundation of our democracy and reverse the legal outcome of the last election.
“We must be brave enough to defend the basic principles that underpin and protect our freedom and our democratic process,” Cheney wrote.
A vote to remove Cheney from her position of leadership may come as early as next week. She survived a similar vote, although secret, in February 145-61 in her favor.
Trump remains popular with GOP voters, with an 80% favorable approval.