In the Ways That Count, Liz Cheney Won | Frank Bruni

Liz Cheney

Extract from Frank Bruni’s piece in the New York Times:

I know what the numbers say. I can read the returns. By those hard, cold, simplistic measures, Liz Cheney was defeated overwhelmingly in her House Republican primary in Wyoming on Tuesday night, and her time in Congress is winding down.

But it’s impossible for me to say that she lost.

She got many, many fewer votes than her opponent, an unscrupulous shape shifter unfit to shine her shoes, because she chose the tough world of truth over Donald Trump’s underworld of lies. That’s a moral victory.

She was spurned by conservatives in Wyoming because she had the clear-eyed vision to see Trump for what he is and — unlike Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy, whose titles perversely include the word “leader” — she wouldn’t don a blindfold. That makes her a champion in the ways that count most.

Come January, she will no longer be Representative Cheney because she represents steadfast principle in an era with a devastating deficit of it. History will smile on her for that. It will remember the likes of McConnell and McCarthy for different, darker reasons. You tell me who’s the winner in this crowd…..

Conclusion

We try to stay out of party politics but Liz Cheney’s stand is about principle — the preservation of American democracy — which should be above politics. Sadly, that is no longer the case.

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