STFU Over The Republican Party and Liz Cheney
No Me Digas. Op-Ed: Keith Price
As the world continues grappling with mutating viruses amidst vaccine deniers and more Black deaths at the hands of law enforcement post-Derek Chauvin’s conviction, mainstream media is spending inordinate amounts of air time talking about poor Liz Cheney and her awful position of being trapped between a rock and a hard place, because of the tug of war happening within the Republican party. To all of that I say, STFU.
I am so tired of the faux concern that everyone seems to have about this “grave” situation. Ms. Cheney is touted as being so “brave” for going against the establishment of the current House Republican power structure. This mother of five, alone, is fighting for the respect of the rule of law and Democracy amongst a bunch of questionably treasonous thugs. I just threw up a little in my mouth. Please excuse me for not caring that her conscience has FINALLY forced her to speak out against the insanity of her chosen party.
I will give it to her for having more backbone than her other “on the fence” colleagues in the House and the Senate. She clearly sees the perversion of her political party and this loyalty to the former president as detrimental to Democracy as we know it. Isn’t it interesting that she couldn’t see ANY of this during her rise to number three within the party?
I would still argue that the previous president IS the personification of a virus. One viral trait is the mutant viral trail that is left behind when the original virus finally dies. As we have seen with COVID-19, the mutant strains of the original still terrorize us, even with a vaccine. Considering the amount of craziness that continues in the Republican party, I would venture to say that they seem to act very much like a bunch of mutated viruses, too.
IF YOU PICTURE THE CELL AS OUR GOVERNMENT AND THE VIRUS AS TRUMP, THEN IT ALL MAKES SENSE.
Have you noticed that even though 45 is gone, his mutant strains are still here in the form of Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Kevin McCarthy, et. al.? They are now devouring their own. Liz Cheney is being castigated by her own party and soon stripped of her place in leadership, because she will not continue to lie for these viral mutants. Do not forget that she is a virus on her own merits. She clearly is now, with the help of her own party members, becoming an attenuated virus, which is a weakened, less vigorous virus. We ALL know why it is happening. She knows why it is happening, and publicly her leadership doesn’t care how it looks to the rest of us. So if they don’t care, why should we? To be honest, they can all go scratch.
The folks in the media continue to make her into some sort of martyr for doing the right thing, but like most Republicans and escorts, we now KNOW her price for allegiance. Clearly, she stops at the selling of her total soul. Perhaps, if she chooses to be Independent she can outwit them all? In the meantime, I care not what she does. Sashay away.
As for the rest of the Republican party, y’all are a hot mess. As people continue to debate why the party is still beholden to the former president, I would like to ask those still in power, “what in the f**k are you all afraid he will do to you?” He’s currently crashing the Mar-a-Lago house band to do stand up sets that spread his lie, so you would think that he is not that powerful. They cowered while he was in office because they were afraid of getting a mean Tweet, and their entire political careers would be over. What would happen if they ALL just turned their backs on him? Or better yet, what would have happened if the Senate had convicted and removed him from office at his first impeachment?
I get some of the fear because Trump, along with his many other minions, encouraged a mobstyle power grab. It was fully equipped with zip ties, cattle prods, and a gallow. It also included threats to the sitting Vice-President at the time, Speaker of the House, and a few other Representatives, coupled with the “concerned citizens simply walking through an open door”.
The Republicans who are not speaking out against it are clearly okay with it because it still serves them. Instead of turning their back on such treasonous behavior, those viral mutants have spent endless days serving us distraction after distraction while proving that they are ill-prepared to challenge the electorate with exciting ideas to rival their Democratic opponents. Now we know why they are working so hard to suppress the vote state by state. There are voter suppression efforts being legislated to make it harder and harder for folks of color, the poor, and other normally disenfranchised people to exercise their constitutional right to vote. It also makes it easier to not offer an agenda to voters, when you know that you’ve rigged the election.
Many of the pundits are talking about how we need to be careful, because our fragile government in a two-party political system could not handle the collapse of being a one party system, and it would be detrimental to our way of life. I would like to offer this reality: The Republican party has been, in many ways, succeeding in their attempts to seize power, statewide, and nationally. Oddly enough, some of the people who are supporting these efforts are starting to realize that these abrupt changes in laws will soon affect them, too. Oops.
I can’t feel sorry for them, and neither should anyone else who wants to stay on the right side of history and progress. I say, let them implode. It means that the “moderate” Republicans are fighting with the Trumpkin viral mutants that have infected the party. They are beating down on Liz Cheney, like Ike with Tina Turner. They are fighting to see who gets to keep the good Republican name. Unlike Tina Turner, neither Liz Cheney nor the Trumpkin Republicans have a great message nor a breakthrough album that can travel the world like PRIVATE DANCER, but I digress.
I can see the potential imbalance that a one party system could have, but what do you think the Republicans are trying to do by suppressing the votes of the actual majority? What do you think Republicans would be doing if they held the majority in the House and Senate while the Democrats were infighting? They would move ahead with their agenda while laughing at the Dems. If I am not mistaken, isn’t that what they did for most of this century? The media should let them fight amongst themselves while those in the majority get important things done to move the country forward, like voter’s rights, infrastructure, removal of the Senate filibuster, etc. If the current majority party would be left after the Republicans imploded, I would be okay with it for at least 2 terms. Of course that could be a potential disaster over time, but the way that Democrats police themselves (ask Al Franken), it could actually work.
Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Stay Distanced.
