Liz Cheney made it obvious that she is considering running for office in 2024, despite the fact an almost 40-point electoral loss isn’t typically the basis for an election bid.
Cheney’s Loss
In her U.S. Senate race on Tuesday night, the Wyoming congressman was completely defeated.
Though the defeat didn’t prompt a somber resignation speech to a roomful of half-intoxicated fans, it did inspire a beautiful, made-for-TV call to arms that invoked Ulysses S. Grant and Abraham Lincoln.
After January 6, Cheney had to decide between maintaining her political viability, which would be required containing her indignation about Trump’s falsehoods about the 2020 race, and political self-immolation.
She determined to execute a theatrical act of self-immolation by igniting the night sky with flames similar to the reactors in the HBO drama “Chernobyl.”
Her loss was a noble one. It is uncommon for an elected figure to be willing to give up their position in favor of a strongly held moral conviction. Cheney did so without hesitation.
Liz Cheney rips into Republican voters, leadership as 'very sick' after landslide primary loss https://t.co/6xiODB2mdC
— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 21, 2022
History will remember her warmly. Cheney will be compared favorably to other party members who condoned or repeated falsehoods in order to hold onto or obtain political power.
However, she clearly eliminated herself from the chance to use electoral politics to shape the Republican Party in a way that would be advantageous.
If she decides to run for the presidency, whether in the Republican primary or as an Independent in the general election, the attempt will be at best fruitless and perhaps even highly harmful.
Cheney Will Continue The Fight
If Cheney is open to rational discussion on this issue, she will be happy to continue advocating against Trump using her enormous fundraising capacity and national platform.
Anything else is foolish.
Keeping herself in view, Cheney made her remarks about Lincoln losing “before he won the most important vote of all.” They weren’t quite appropriate. It wasn’t a suicide attack for Lincoln to run against Stephen Douglas for the Senate.
He was a budding political group’s representative and came extremely near to winning. Despite being a long shot, in his later run for the Republican nomination, Lincoln was a genuine person who had built a national profile and was firmly in the middle of his party’s mainstream.
Cheney is in a strange position since she is hated by her own party. She is not a Lincolnian, both tactically and behaviorally.
Now Liz Cheney has been “debunked” #2000Mules https://t.co/L0zHZbxhkT
— Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) August 20, 2022
Lincoln remained a political realist and, at his core, a party guy, prepared to bluff when it was required while having strong ideals.
Cheney’s post-January 6 strategy is more like William Lloyd Garrison’s than it is Lincoln’s.
Garrison was a staunch abolitionist printer who took unapologetically bold and controversial stances and anticipated the world to turn toward him.
As it turned out, the globe was moving in the direction of Garrison; although he wasn’t campaigning at the time.
This article appeared in The Patriot Brief and has been published here with permission.
