Why Liz Cheney Lost

The premise of Congresswoman Liz Cheney’s campaign for a fourth term was the idea that, as she liked to put it, “Republicans cannot both be loyal to Donald Trump and loyal to the Constitution.” Her strategy was to question the good faith of her fellow Republicans in the one oath all office-holders in America must take — to the Constitution. And to suggest that Republicans are, as her father put it, “too scared” to stand up to Mr. Trump.No wonder she lost, is all we can say. We found her sincere and, at times, even moving. Yet it turns out that for the vast majority of Republican Wyomingites — and Republicans in other states — two can play this game. Millions have discovered that hewing to the Constitution makes it much harder to be loyal to the Democrats than to the Republicans. This goes back to 2016, when it was the Democrats who refused to accept the results of the election.Their reaction was to plot to destroy a duly elected president. Democrats ginned up false charges of collusion with Russia. They confected a fake dossier of President Trump’s misbehavior with Russia. The Times took to accusing the President of treason. The Democrat defeated for president announced herself part of the “resistance.” Prosecutors pursued the president despite him being the sole repository of executive authority.Then, when Democrats finally impeached the president — a manifestly constitutional act — they refused to accept the finding of not-guilty. Come 2021, when protests unleashed by the President interrupted the counting of the electoral vote, Democrats impeached the president again, this time for incitement to insurrection. When the Senate again found Mr. Trump not guilty, the Democrats set up a special House committee to attaint him.That is, it resorted to the process of attainder that is specifically denied to the Congress by the Constitution. Ms. Cheney’s zeal to disqualify Mr. Trump from standing again for a second term led her to affiliate with the unconstitutional tactics of the January 6 committee. She broke the constitutional ban on attainder, summed up by the Supreme Court as “trial by legislature,” and ignored even the most basic elements of due process. Far from being chastened by the prospect of losing her seat in Congress, Ms. Cheney has set her cap for even higher office, though she hasn’t made a formal decision. She explains her motivation to run for president is to “do the right thing — to do what I know is right for the country and to protect our constitution.” That’s all very well and good, but spare Wyomingites and the rest of us the business about the Constitution.We don’t mind saying that we view Vice President Cheney and his wife, Lynne, as heroic figures. The Republicans of Wyoming, though, have rendered their verdict on Liz Cheney’s choice. They grasp that the gravest danger to the Constitution today lies not in Mr. Trump, who, for all his faults, failed to surmount the Constitution, but rather in the political party with which Ms. Cheney has chosen to make common cause.Last night Ms. Cheney did concede forthrightly to Harriet Hageman, who won in a landslide by focusing on the workaday issues that will face the next Congress. And by recognizing that the Democrats have long since become the party of high taxes, over-regulation, vast spending, inflation, fiat money, and appeasement. And a Constitution not of plain language but of shadows and penumbras. That is why Liz Cheney lost.

Why Liz Cheney Lost

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