Is this how it begins? Today is a dark day for the USA, maybe even more so than January 6th 2021 when former President Trump incited an insurrection to pervert the course of democracy and steal an election.
Wyoming Senator Liz Cheney has refused to tow Trump’s line which she knows to be untrue and for that she has been sacked from her leadership position in the GOP. She has become an unlikely heroine in speaking truth to power in a party surrounded by Trump sycophants who place fealty to him before honesty, peddling the ‘Big Lie’ that really he won the election in order to cling to power.
What power though? Under Trump’s leadership they lost the House and the Senate. The likes of snivelling turncoat Kevin McCarthy and spineless shill Lindsey Graham have both fallen back into line after speaking out against Trump’s role in the Capitol riots in January.
Cheney is no friend to liberals and has a shady voting track record but she seems to be the only one that will stand up and call Trump’s continued embarrassing bleatings for the bullshit that they are. She was also bashed for greeting President Biden cordially on the House floor – simple human interaction and respect.
How did politics become so toxic, so dangerous? Due to continued misinformation from Donald Trump over several years, thereby creating his cult of followers that would never turn away from and would do anything for their Dear Leader.
One aspect of fascism is convincing people to believe something they know to be untrue which is exactly what is happening here. Cheney refuses to go down without a fight but is due to be replaced by Trump crony Elise Stefanik who has his backing despite voting against him in the past and criticising him. Of course now she’s changed her tune as the lure of power has once again caused a Republican to check their soul at the door.
How this plays out for Cheney in the coming weeks and months is anyone’s guess but the threat of violence is never far from the surface. So much so Facebook used this very reason to continue Tump’s ban on the platform.
Liz Cheney will, however, go down in history as the ONLY one willing to speak up and condemn lies that threaten the very fabric of American democracy. Once again, it takes a woman to have the balls to do something all the men around her are abjectly failing to do.