Liz Cheney, a dissident ready to sacrifice her career and risk her life to defend her principles, to protect American democracy against Donald Trump? Anyone who closely followed the career of the eldest daughter of Dick Cheney would have highly doubted it until the fall of 2020.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
Representative of Wyoming in the United States House of Representatives, elected for the first time at the same time as Donald Trump, the ultra-conservative Republican has almost always sided with the Republican president: 93% of the time, to be more exact.
In order not to stir the cage, she even swallowed large grass snakes. When Access Hollywood’s video of Donald Trump bragging about grabbing women “by the pussy” emerged, Liz Cheney defended the Republican nominee, saying “Hillary [Clinton] did much worse.”
During the first impeachment proceedings against the Republican president for abuse of power and obstructing the smooth running of Congress, she dismissed the charges out of hand.
She remained ultra-loyal to her party, like her father, who served as vice president under George W. Bush.
This loyalty served her well for a time: she became president of the Republican conference in the House of Representatives, the third most important position of her party in Congress.
Everything changed when the 45e White House tenant began shouting left and right that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from him. That he was the victim of a great fraud. This is where Liz Cheney began to question her loyalty.
When rioters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 after an inflammatory speech from the president, she was downright out of it. Since then, she has been Donald Trump’s biggest critic.
Along with nine other Republicans, she voted for her impeachment in a second round of proceedings, this time for incitement to insurrection. She also agreed to be vice-president of the congressional committee investigating the events of January 6, focusing on the role of Donald Trump in this event which shook American democracy.
And she is doing it against all odds: her Republican peers in Congress stripped her of her prestigious title, the Republican Party of Wyoming turned its back on her and on Tuesday, Republican voters in the state preferred her a pro- Trump in the state primaries ahead of the midterm elections. However, two years ago, 73.5% of them had placed their trust in him.
Very happy with this outcome, Donald Trump now predicts “the depths of political oblivion”.
In today’s terms, one could say that Liz Cheney has just been “cancelled” by the party that saw her born and grow. The party of which she was a crown princess. And this cancellation is not done gently. Target of death threats, she travels everywhere with security agents.
Despite all this adversity, she does not let herself be defeated. By conceding victory on Tuesday, acknowledging that she will leave Congress in January 2023, she did not throw in the towel, but rather affirmed that the battle to rein in Donald Trump has only just begun. The battle for the soul of the Republican Party. The battle that she now embodies and which could lead her to present her candidacy for the presidential election of 2024.
Dissent is rare in American politics, but it is not unprecedented, recalls Gil Troy, professor of history at McGill University and specialist in the American presidency.
In 1974, Democratic Senator William Fulbright turned his back on his party by opposing the Vietnam War. He gave his name to one of the most prestigious scholarships in the country.
John Quincy Adams, after being president, was re-elected to the House of Representatives to fight the expansion of slavery.
PHOTO FROM THE WHITE HOUSE WEBSITE
abraham lincoln
Liz Cheney, she prefers to evoke the mythical figure of Abraham Lincoln, who defended emancipation, despite the fierce opposition of the States of the South. He prevailed, but at the cost of a civil war and his own assassination.
Dissent often comes at a high price.
A young senator from Massachusetts, a certain John F. Kennedy, dedicated a book in 1956 to the story of eight courageous senators who had gone it alone to defend decency and peace in a torn country. The book, Profiles in Couragewas a huge best-seller, won a Pulitzer Prize and marked the American imagination.
The descendants of President Kennedy present a Profile in Courage Award each year to individuals who risk everything and stand up to their own to defend what is important to them.
PHOTO ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
Liz Cheney receiving the Profile in Courage Award
In May, Liz Cheney received the award alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and three other Americans who, like Mme Cheney, refused to bend to defend democracy.
The winners all received a silver lantern signed Tiffany.
We will now have to see where this lantern will lead Liz Cheney. She has already proven that she has the temper to hold it at arm’s length.