Tranquillus in Exile
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The following is abbreviated from a perceptive article in The Telegraph by DANIEL HANNAN. Who he? See the footnote.
Liz Cheney is losing her seat in Congress for one reason only. She refuses to play along with the pretence that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
In the immediate aftermath of that tawdry coup attempt [Jan 6], Cheney’s views were mainstream. Most Republican politicians publicly blamed Trump for having egged on the mob. Only as it became clear that most of their voters still followed Trump did they slink back uncomfortably to him.
They dealt with their embarrassment in various ways. Some affected to treat the attack on the Capitol as a joke – just a few weirdos in funny clothes, hardly an insurrection, ha ha. Others pretended that the rioters had nothing to do with Trump. Still others kept shtum, unwilling to perjure themselves, but reluctant to risk their careers when a majority of Republican supporters believed that the election was stolen. Worst of all were those who went along with the lie, undermining the legitimacy of America’s institutions.
What made Cheney unpopular was that she refused to shift her position when her colleagues did. She became their bad conscience, repeating what most of them knew to be true, but no longer dared to say out loud. No wonder they resented her.
Every member of Congress swears an oath to “defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Even if Trump had no other flaws, his insistence - before a single ballot had been cast in either 2016 or 2020 - that the only way he could lose would be through fraud should have disqualified him from serious contention.
The Republican Party was founded in the name of republican virtue. In particular, republicanism meant refusing to lay your liberties at the feet of any man, however great or wise. So how did the GOP come to lay its liberties at the feet of a whining, self-pitying narcissist?
The answer often given to that question is essentially transactional. Yes, Trump might be detestable, but he reaches parts of the electorate that no one else can. So, with all his flaws, he is preferable to the alternative.
I can understand the cult of a successful leader. I don’t like it, and I think it un-American, but I can see why it happens. What I can’t understand is the cult of an unsuccessful leader. There were no Nixonians after 1974, no Carterites after 1980. But Trump is, according to the polls, easily the most popular choice to win the 2024 Republican nomination.
Where the GOP used to stand for low spending, free trade, a strong foreign policy and strict adherence to the Constitution, it now stands for protectionism, indifference to old allies, and the belief that the law should be subordinated to the wishes of the leader. Hence the degrading sight, over the past few weeks, of Republicans demanding that the FBI be disbanded for carrying out a judicially warranted search of Trump’s Florida home.
Nothing has so elevated and ennobled America as freedom under the law. Limited government, the balance of power, the self-restraint of even the highest office-holders – these things are not incidental to American identity. They are the core of American identity. That the Republicans should have become the party that ceases to care is tragic.
Liz Cheney’s defeat means that, of the ten Republicans who properly voted to impeach Trump after the riots, only two remain. Many more Reaganite legislators are retiring and being replaced by Trumpians. By “Trumpians” I partly mean politicians who share his agenda; mainly, though, I mean people who will unhesitatingly shift their views when he shifts his.
Trump remains the boorish, whingeing man-child he always was. He has not changed. But he has changed his party – malignly and, it seems, irrevocably.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...ermining-democracy-sake-whining-self-pitying/
Footnote
Daniel Hannan was a Conservative MEP 1999-2019 and a significant figure in the Brexit movement. Despite what you may have heard about such people, he is a liberal conservative – a type verging on extinction in America.
His position is aptly summed up in this quote:
"Conservatives understand that the things they cherish – property rights, parliamentary government, personal freedom, norms of courtesy – take a long time to build up, but can be quickly destroyed."
Sadly, that’s what seems to be happening in America.
Liz Cheney is losing her seat in Congress for one reason only. She refuses to play along with the pretence that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
In the immediate aftermath of that tawdry coup attempt [Jan 6], Cheney’s views were mainstream. Most Republican politicians publicly blamed Trump for having egged on the mob. Only as it became clear that most of their voters still followed Trump did they slink back uncomfortably to him.
They dealt with their embarrassment in various ways. Some affected to treat the attack on the Capitol as a joke – just a few weirdos in funny clothes, hardly an insurrection, ha ha. Others pretended that the rioters had nothing to do with Trump. Still others kept shtum, unwilling to perjure themselves, but reluctant to risk their careers when a majority of Republican supporters believed that the election was stolen. Worst of all were those who went along with the lie, undermining the legitimacy of America’s institutions.
What made Cheney unpopular was that she refused to shift her position when her colleagues did. She became their bad conscience, repeating what most of them knew to be true, but no longer dared to say out loud. No wonder they resented her.
Every member of Congress swears an oath to “defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Even if Trump had no other flaws, his insistence - before a single ballot had been cast in either 2016 or 2020 - that the only way he could lose would be through fraud should have disqualified him from serious contention.
The Republican Party was founded in the name of republican virtue. In particular, republicanism meant refusing to lay your liberties at the feet of any man, however great or wise. So how did the GOP come to lay its liberties at the feet of a whining, self-pitying narcissist?
The answer often given to that question is essentially transactional. Yes, Trump might be detestable, but he reaches parts of the electorate that no one else can. So, with all his flaws, he is preferable to the alternative.
I can understand the cult of a successful leader. I don’t like it, and I think it un-American, but I can see why it happens. What I can’t understand is the cult of an unsuccessful leader. There were no Nixonians after 1974, no Carterites after 1980. But Trump is, according to the polls, easily the most popular choice to win the 2024 Republican nomination.
Where the GOP used to stand for low spending, free trade, a strong foreign policy and strict adherence to the Constitution, it now stands for protectionism, indifference to old allies, and the belief that the law should be subordinated to the wishes of the leader. Hence the degrading sight, over the past few weeks, of Republicans demanding that the FBI be disbanded for carrying out a judicially warranted search of Trump’s Florida home.
Nothing has so elevated and ennobled America as freedom under the law. Limited government, the balance of power, the self-restraint of even the highest office-holders – these things are not incidental to American identity. They are the core of American identity. That the Republicans should have become the party that ceases to care is tragic.
Liz Cheney’s defeat means that, of the ten Republicans who properly voted to impeach Trump after the riots, only two remain. Many more Reaganite legislators are retiring and being replaced by Trumpians. By “Trumpians” I partly mean politicians who share his agenda; mainly, though, I mean people who will unhesitatingly shift their views when he shifts his.
Trump remains the boorish, whingeing man-child he always was. He has not changed. But he has changed his party – malignly and, it seems, irrevocably.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...ermining-democracy-sake-whining-self-pitying/
Footnote
Daniel Hannan was a Conservative MEP 1999-2019 and a significant figure in the Brexit movement. Despite what you may have heard about such people, he is a liberal conservative – a type verging on extinction in America.
His position is aptly summed up in this quote:
"Conservatives understand that the things they cherish – property rights, parliamentary government, personal freedom, norms of courtesy – take a long time to build up, but can be quickly destroyed."
Sadly, that’s what seems to be happening in America.
