Boston College History Professor Heather Cox Richardson's "Letter From An American" Probes Liz Cheney's Speech As She Prepared For Her Ouster From A Position Of Authority In The Republican Party

Boston College Historian Heather Cox Richardson's Daily "Letter From An American," March 14, 2021

Alan: Boston College History Professor Heather Cox Richardson's provides an insightful, comprehensive and well-informed daily review of American politics. Professor Richardson specializes in the history of The Republican Party, and how the Civil War and subsequent Westward expansion affected the basic thrust of American history. She is exceptionally clearheaded, comprehensively knowledgeable and speaks in an engaging, straightforward, highly-readable style. She is the kind of intellectual who terrifies people who dismiss "the intellectual elites" because she knows what she's talking about and the picture she paints spotlights the relentless decline of the GOP ever since Newt Gingrich laid groundwork for The Tea Party.

In the span of five minutes, Heather gives the best historically-contextualized view of what happened "yesterday" in American politics. 

And she offers this gift every day.

  You can stay abreast of Boston College History Professor Heather Cox Richardson's daily reviews of American politics at Bill  Moyers' dedicated web page:  

https://billmoyers.com/spotlight/today-with-heather-cox-richardson/ 

If any Democrat - even a mentally ill one who'd stopped taking his meds - had attacked the Capitol Building (much less called for the hanging of vice-president Pence), every "conservative" in America (bleeding at the eyes, their carotid arteries pulsing purple) -- would demand that the seditionist-traitor be drawn and quartered on the National Mall, his dismembered body parts then stuffed in a gibbet to be hung over Pennsylvania Avenue until every bit of flesh had rotted away and the bones had bleached titanium white.

But when actual seditionists are Trump supporters -- not to mention Trump himself -- they are lauded as True Patriots.

Trumpistas make the original Pharisees look like Mother Theresa on steroids.

Inflammatory rhetoric and ubiquitous self-victimization are ALL the Republican Party's got left - a party comprised of liars, miscreants and malevolent lickspittles who would eagerly sell their souls to Satan for pragmatic political advantage. For all I know, they may have done so already.

It's not like Republican malice is anything new:

Pat Buchanan, The Republican Presidential Candidate And Living American Who Has Served Longest As Senior White House Official, Says Republicans Are In It For "Power Only" And "To Hell With Principles"

https://newsfrombarbaria.blogspot.com/2020/09/pat-buchanan-republican-presidential.html

This is not about Democrats and Republicans. This is about sentient beings and The Lizard People.

"Letter From An American" Probes Liz Cheney's Speech As She Prepared For Her Ouster From A Position Of Authority In The Republican Party May 11, 2021 Heather Cox Richardson May 12 Tonight, in a speech that claimed every piece of the Republican landscape since 1980, Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney launched a broadside against the Republican leaders who have shackled the party to the former president. “Today we face a threat America has never seen before,” Cheney said. “A former president who provoked a violent attack on this Capitol in an effort to steal the election has resumed his aggressive effort to convince Americans that the election was stolen from him. He risks inciting further violence. Millions of Americans have been misled by the former president. They have heard only his words, but not the truth, as he continues to undermine our democratic process, sowing seeds of doubt about whether democracy really works at all.” Cheney recalled the determination of those in Kenya, Russia, and Poland to risk their lives to vote for freedom, and talked of how the dream of American democracy had inspired them. She touched on religion, assuring listeners that God has favored America. She invoked Reagan, claiming that his Republican Party won the Cold War and saying that America is now on the cusp of another cold war with communist China. This impending struggle highlighted the importance of today’s domestic struggle: “Attacks against our democratic process and the rule of law empower our adversaries and feed communist propaganda that American democracy is a failure. We must speak the truth. Our election was not stolen, and America has not failed.” Cheney went on to claim that she stood on conservative principles Republicans like House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has abandoned. The fundamental conservative principle is the rule of law, she reminded listeners, and those backing Trump’s Big Lie are denying that rule and undermining our democracy. The election is over, she said, and “Those who refuse to accept the rulings of our courts are at war with the Constitution.” It is imperative, she said, to act to prevent “the unraveling of our democracy.” "This is not about policy. This is not about partisanship. This is about our duty as Americans. Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar." Tomorrow, House Republicans will vote on whether to keep Cheney at the number three spot in the party in the House—she is expected to be removed—and Trump’s own former deputy attorney general, Jeffrey A. Rosen, will tell the House Oversight Committee that after the election, the Justice Department “had been presented with no evidence of widespread voter fraud at a scale sufficient to change the outcome of the 2020 election.” On Thursday, over 100 former Republican leaders will drop a letter saying that if party leadership does not separate itself from former president Trump, they will start a third party. They are calling themselves the “rationals” against the “radicals,” and they include former governors and representatives, as well as Republican officeholders. This revolt against the Trump loyalists in the Republican Party signals that, no matter what leadership is saying, many Republicans—including Republican lawmakers—are not, in fact, united behind the former president. After all, he never broke 50% approval when he was president, and he lost the White House and Congress for the party. And, now that he is locked out of Twitter and Facebook, it appears he can no longer command the audience he used to. In the week since he launched a new blog, it has attracted a little over 212,000 likes, shares, and comments. The top post got just 16,000 engagements. Meanwhile, 63% of Americans approve of the job President Joe Biden is doing. What’s at stake in the fight over Cheney’s position in the Republican Party—admit it, did you ever think you would care about who was the third most important House Republican?—is not some obscure struggle for political seniority. It’s a fight over whether the Republican Party will wed itself to the Big Lie that a Democratic president is illegitimate, despite all evidence to the contrary. Cheney is not a Democrat by a long shot, and she is correctly calling out the danger of the Big Lie for what it is: a dagger pointed at the heart of our democracy. Notes: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/rationals-vs-radicals-anti-trump-republicans-threaten-third-party-2021-05-11/ https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/11/us/politics/rosen-fraud-congress-testimony-trump.html https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/trumps-blog-isnt-lighting-internet-rcna890 Share