Liz Cheney - a hero for our times

Why I respect Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Joe Manchin and other principled public leaders - whether I agree with their politics or not.

It’s always been the moderates in American politics that have had the most appeal to me. From Dwight Eisenhower and Nelson Rockefeller, to Joe Manchin, Susan Collins and Kyrsten Sinema, I’ve always liked and respected most those who were willing to stand up to the ideological bomb-throwers in their own camps.

Almost anyone with enough wherewithal to win an election can face the opposition, but contending with friendly fire is much more difficult. My hat is off to anyone who does that — something that often lands you way out where the buses don’t run.

It’s not even the slightest exaggeration to claim that we are at a unique moment in American political history. Partisanship is very high, and every policy debate, it seems, is viewed through an ideological lens. At a time when we confront pressing issues that virtually scream for non-partisan solutions, we are getting just the opposite. Even something as critical as addressing our infrastructure needs has devolved into a food fight because neither side can even agree on what infrastructure means, much less how much to spend on whatever it does mean.

Right now a centrist, Joe Manchin, may be the most powerful politician in our nation’s Capitol. He’s almost single-handedly put the kibosh on the progressive agenda that came to the fore after last year’s elections.

Whether President Joe Biden knows it or not, Sen. Manchin is his best hope for re-election in 2024. Biden, whose political instincts have generally been centrist throughout his career, was forced to the left during in order to carry the last Democratic primary. The fact that Manchin is in a position to put the brakes on the portions of the progressive agenda that are not popular with most Americans is a gift for President Biden.

If there’s anything more impressive that centrist politicians who are willing to stand up to the partisans in their own ranks, it has to be partisans who are willing to stand up to extremists in their own ranks — an act that often lands you all alone on a sandbar in the middle of the ocean.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, Sen. Mitt Romney, Sen. Ben Sasse and a few other Republicans have demonstrated some of this quality in their condemnation of Donald Trump in the aftermath of the Capitol riots of Jan. 6, 2021, and in their refusal to get sucked into the bogus claim that the last presidential election was stolen from Trump as a result of election fraud.

But, Kinzinger aside, these are mostly moderate Republicans anyway. They’ve all faced some blowback, but it appears that they’ll all survive.

The person who most exemplifies calling down your own when it’s called for has to be Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who’s made no secret of her disdain for both the events of Jan. 6 and Trump’s claims of election fraud. Liz Cheney may be my new most favorite person. I can’t say that I agree with a lot of her politics, but for me, a person who admires guts and moxie as much as anything, Cheney’s the goods.

Watching Rep. Cheney, not exactly a darling of the left, call out and stand up to members of her own flank of the Republican party is, in a word, refreshing — even to a cynic like me. Ms. Cheney has more stones than all of her (mostly male) critics combined. Though it appears that she’s going to lose her place in House leadership over all of this, I think that some of her antagonists are eventually going to rue the day they bit off more than they can chew. My hat is off to her.

I kind of crossed paths with Ms. Cheney once, courtesy of attending a Republican fundraiser at Teton Pines (near Jackson, Wyoming). I feel your incredulity. It’s a long story.

At any rate, though Rep. Cheney and I may not agree on a lot, at least politically, we evidently see Donald Trump in almost the same light. As much as I agree with some of Trump’s actions, I think that Trump, himself, is basically a zero as a human being and was very limited as our leader.

And he lost the last election because he didn’t get enough votes. That’s all there is to it.

Trump was also a clear drag on the Republican party in the last election. Had any Republican except Trump been at the top of the ballot, Republicans would very likely now be firmly in control of nearly everything.

But it’s almost no skin off my nose to call Trump out. I’m pretty firmly ensconced in the middle of the political spectrum. I don’t answer to voters or party leaders. Rep. Cheney does, and many of her supporters also happen to be die-hard Trumpers. So her position is an act of considerable political courage.

Anyone can stand up for the right thing when it’s easy, it’s when it’s hard that you discover who’s who. Right now Liz Cheney is the cover poster for profiles in courage — something that we could sure use more of across the political spectrum.

Liz Cheney — you go, girl.