# Why is Liz Cheney taking this lying down?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-liz-cheney-taking-this-lying-down/932352
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [February 7, 2021, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-liz-cheney-taking-this-lying-down/932352 "2021-02-07T00:44:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2021, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-liz-cheney-taking-this-lying-down/932352/41 "2021-05-05T14:35:34Z")
So, at what point does she denounce the GOP and cross the aisle to join the Democrats?
I mean, seriously, what benefit is there in her remaining a Republican anymore?
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### Author:  [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2021, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-liz-cheney-taking-this-lying-down/932352/42 "2021-05-05T14:38:10Z")
Her political career is over.
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2021, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-liz-cheney-taking-this-lying-down/932352/43 "2021-05-05T14:57:20Z")
> [@Horatius](#):
>
> So, at what point does she denounce the GOP and cross the aisle to join the Democrats?
She hates the Democrats for their policies as much as she hates the Trumpists for their lies. It’s like assuming a Catholic who denounces the Church for child abuse is going to become a Satinist.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2021, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-liz-cheney-taking-this-lying-down/932352/44 "2021-05-05T15:19:57Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#):
>
> It’s like assuming a Catholic who denounces the Church for child abuse is going to become a Satinist.
What, you think they’d more likely turn to velour?
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### Author:  [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2021, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-liz-cheney-taking-this-lying-down/932352/45 "2021-05-05T16:17:38Z")
From a political standpoint the GOP has to go after never-Trumpers because otherwise Trumpists will be attacked by democrats during elections. The GOP have to pretend that there’s no there there and that’s hard to do when a major republican isn’t going along. I’m assuming that’s why McConnell has stopped hitting Trump.
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### Author:  [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2021, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-liz-cheney-taking-this-lying-down/932352/46 "2021-05-05T16:20:41Z")
It’s really stunning how far they’ve fallen from reality.
It used to be that the Republicans were supposed to be the steely-eyed realists, right?
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### Author:  [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2021, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-liz-cheney-taking-this-lying-down/932352/47 "2021-05-05T16:32:00Z")
The rise of Trump has been a complete disaster, for the country and the GOP. Here’s hoping that as time goes on the GOP starts to lose support but sadly I doubt it.
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### Author:  [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2021, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-liz-cheney-taking-this-lying-down/932352/48 "2021-05-05T16:37:24Z")
"supposed?’ No, but they claimed to be. Liberals were “pablum-puking” (Morton Downey Jr.'s castigation that leftist were naïve babies), or joined hands and sang “Kumbaya,” unrealistically optimistic of human nature. Not like our tough-minded Cold Warrior Republicans. But then we remember it was Lee Atwater who, although he didn’t originate, but certainly espoused “Perception _is_ Reality,” and delighted in how easy a demagogue could create perception regardless of its basis in reality. And here we are today, contending with those “some of the people fooled all of the time” mentioned by Abraham Lincoln. Or simply, as he was too polite to call them, “Fools.”
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### Author:  [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2021, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-liz-cheney-taking-this-lying-down/932352/49 "2021-05-05T19:54:29Z")
> [@RitterSport](#):
>
> It used to be that the Republicans were supposed to be the steely-eyed realists, right?
Turns out they’re googly-eyed fanatics.
[ ](https://www.cnet.com/a/img/resize/36f001b4a38b227635e55e4391ffc466347b1d5d/hub/2018/09/25/5b1a7cdf-f052-41f4-9ebb-3357f855f36c/mygod.jpg?auto=webp&width=940)
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2021, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-liz-cheney-taking-this-lying-down/932352/50 "2021-05-05T21:19:00Z")
:This situation just changed. Liz is starting to fight back. CNN reports she has released an op-ed in the Washington post described “as the opening salvo in what she considers the long war ahead”. I can’t find a link that is not paywalled. I’m not surprised that she’s going to put up a fight.
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### Author:  [@sachertorte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sachertorte)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2021, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-liz-cheney-taking-this-lying-down/932352/51 "2021-05-05T21:33:07Z")
> [@ShadowFacts](#):
>
> Turns out they’re googly-eyed fanatics.
That’s Gritty.
The Phanatic is Green.
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2021, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-liz-cheney-taking-this-lying-down/932352/52 "2021-05-05T21:47:02Z")
FWIW, here is the WaPo link:
> **[Opinion | Liz Cheney: The GOP is at a turning point. History is watching us.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/05/liz-cheney-republican-party-turning-point/)**
>
> Republicans must decide whether we are going to choose truth and fidelity to the Constitution.
It’s really, _really_ good.
> [@](#):
>
> 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.
>
> The question before us now is whether we will join Trump’s crusade to delegitimize and undo the legal outcome of the 2020 election, with all the consequences that might have. I have worked overseas in nations where changes in leadership come only with violence, where democracy takes hold only until the next violent upheaval. America is exceptional because our constitutional system guards against that. At the heart of our republic is a commitment to the peaceful transfer of power among political rivals in accordance with law. President Ronald Reagan [described this](https://www.msnbc.com/mtp-daily/watch/reagan-in-1981-called-transfer-of-power-in-u-s-a-miracle-92473925851) as our 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.
>
> For Republicans, the path forward is clear.
Then she lays out that path.
Let’s see what happens next, but for her effort I have to say: good job, Rep. Cheney.
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### Author:  [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2021, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-liz-cheney-taking-this-lying-down/932352/53 "2021-05-05T22:38:24Z")
The problem with Cheney publishing that op-ed in the Post is that it’s not getting to the people who need to read it most. Besides the paywall issue, WaPo is not an organ read by the Trumpists who want to toss her out of the party.
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### Author:  [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2021, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-liz-cheney-taking-this-lying-down/932352/54 "2021-05-05T22:52:28Z")
I’m sure it will be reprinted in Wyoming publications, but writing in WaPo will only harm her more. All the Trumpists I know think it is **filth** , and anything written there (or in the NYT, etc.) is by definition the opposite of truth. If they had any doubts about her before, this should resolve them. I can’t imagine what she was thinking – she’s just writing for the history books, I guess.
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### Author:  [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2021, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-liz-cheney-taking-this-lying-down/932352/55 "2021-05-05T22:56:22Z")
You’re assuming her audience is the Trumpists. This to me reads like a message to the big big money donors and the corporatists that control the purse strings. “I’m not a nutjob. Your businesses are fucked in the longterm if the nutjobs stay in control. You need to help kill the Big Lie right now by supporting me and people like me”
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### Author:  [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2021, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-liz-cheney-taking-this-lying-down/932352/56 "2021-05-05T22:59:50Z")
Looks like the Tea Party takeover of the GOP that started 10+ years ago is nearly complete. The virus has consumed the host, like Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
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### Author:  [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2021, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-liz-cheney-taking-this-lying-down/932352/57 "2021-05-05T23:13:05Z")
There is now, and has only been, one way for her, Kinzinger, and other ‘good’ Republicans to ‘fight back’. And that is, leave the fucking party. Split the party and caucus with democrats. Yes, this will probably be bad for their political career and their post-career of lobbying, think tanking, and revolving board memberships. But something tells me that they care too much for that to fight back too hard.
The Republican party is removing Cheney and warring with others because they tell the truth. They are removing Cheney and warring with others because there is no place for them if they don’t perpetuate the Big Lie. This is the Nazification of the Republican party. Yes, Nazification. Nothing less. That is what this is.
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### Author:  [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2021, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-liz-cheney-taking-this-lying-down/932352/58 "2021-05-05T23:23:46Z")
It started out as the tea party, but it’s evolving into a fascist machine. They failed to use their legislative and administrative powers in November and December, and they failed in their insurrection on January 6th, but they failed only in the sense that they were uncoordinated, half-hearted, and not really prepared for the moment.
When you think about it, though, Republicans paid a very small price for a flagrant violation against the Constitution, the rule of law, and liberal democracy. They’ve tested the system. They’ve seen where they failed. For them, the months between the election and inauguration was not a teachable moment; it validated their beliefs that they don’t need to worry about competing in elections to win power anymore. They can take control of the system with brute force. And that is exactly what they intend to do.
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### Author:  [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2021, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-liz-cheney-taking-this-lying-down/932352/59 "2021-05-05T23:30:03Z")
> [@](#):
>
> America is exceptional because our constitutional system guards against that.
And really, that’s where she’s wrong. Democracy only works when the people involved _want_ it to work, and _make the sacrifices necessary_ to make it work. And the biggest of those sacrifices is admitting when you’ve lost, and letting the other party form the government.
Get enough people in the system who don’t want that, and aren’t willing to make that sacrifice, and the system stops working, no matter what rules you’ve put down on paper. And the GOP at least is full of such people now.
The only hope for democracy in the US is if there are still enough citizens (as opposed to GOP party fanatics) who are willing to do what needs to be done to rein in these anti-democrats.
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2021, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-liz-cheney-taking-this-lying-down/932352/60 "2021-05-06T01:38:55Z")
> [@asahi](#):
>
> and caucus with democrats.
How does someone like Cheney caucus with the Democrats? She still shares all of the policy positions of the Republican caucus; just not their loyalty to Trump.
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