I’ve never been someone to mince words, especially when it comes to defending what I love.
I love the American conservative movement. My life has been invested in it, going back to when I was 8 years old going door-to-door handing out literature for Barry Goldwater in 1964.
I love the grounded principles and the fighters I’ve come to know over the last 40 years. We may not always agree on certain aspects of the movement, but being a big gathering is what makes conservatism beautiful.
So I’m quite frankly appalled at the treatment of Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming by her fellow House Republican leaders and many rank and file conservatives simply for having a contrary opinion. I’m sure she and I would not see eye-to-eye on every policy, but such trivial things are no reason to excommunicate someone from party leadership.
Cheney’s only crime of course is her belief that the GOP needs to wash its hands of Donald Trump. Otherwise, she’s a tried and true conservative. And our movement is big enough to accommodate personal opinions.
Her detractors, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, insist that her repeated criticisms of Trump are a distraction from fighting the Biden agenda. That may be, but in devoting this much time to ousting her instead of stopping Sleepy Joe, McCarthy, Steve Scalise, and the rest are making exactly the same mistake.
What it boils down to is that the conservative base has an addiction to Trump, and no wonder: Trump’s presidency saw many victories for the movement that shouldn’t be discounted. But throughout his four years, GOP leaders were visibly afraid to ever cross him, both because of his legendary penchant for grudges and fear of being excoriated by the base. Being a conservative is not about him.
Party unity is important, particularly when your party is in the opposition, but conforming out of fear of the party leader is not unity. As conservatives, we aren’t supposed to employ fear. Especially when Cheney is more conservative and ethical than most.
Contrary to what the media says, conservatives aren’t fear-mongers. On paper, we’re supposed to be a movement of ideas and optimism, but instead we are adopting the very cancel culture that liberals so wantonly employ to suppress their enemies.
Ronald Reagan certainly never used intimidation to keep his fellow Republicans in line, and he certainly didn’t surround himself with sycophants. If that had been the case, he would not have chosen the experienced but more liberal George H.W. Bush as a running mate or Jim Baker as his Chief of Staff. Ronald Reagan was always a recruiter and a movement builder. McCarthy and others should be too.
Those decisions were not always popular with the voting base, but in the long run it helped Reagan’s presidency immensely. It signaled that the GOP could indeed be a party with many different brands of conservatism all working toward a goal of improving the country with our values.
In short, Reagan would not have approved of what the party is doing to Cheney, nor would he have approved of Trump’s cult of personality that has come to dominate conservative politics. Conservative values are limited government, lower taxes, free speech, and individual liberty.
Conservative values are not whatever Donald Trump feels when he wakes up in the morning.
McCarthy and Scalise are correct that the focus of the party should be fighting Biden and taking back Congress, and by all rights the GOP should take back the House in 2022 after their victories last cycle. But making an example out of Cheney and other dissidents will leave a bad taste in the mouths of independent and women voters, the same people who voted for Biden while voting Republican down ballot last year. You don’t build a party by throwing out good and principled people like Cheney.
Looking like we only care about pleasing one man and getting his endorsement will alienate Reagan Democrats from the conservative movement at a time when we desperately need them. And that’s not even considering how bad it looks that Republicans are about to strip a woman from a leadership role.
As a student of history, I can safely say that sometimes conservatives are their own worst enemies when it comes to PR or studying history. Giving Cheney the boot is bad for a number of reasons, but it’s only going to add to the liberal media stereotype that conservatives have it out for women.
Oh sure, the GOP is making a big thing out of setting up Rep. Elise Stefanik to replace Cheney, but the damage will still be done. You’d think Republicans would want to capitalize on the record number of women they elected in 2020, but apparently keeping Trump happy is more important.
Purging Liz Cheney for having an opinion is madness, and it’s high time conservatives washed their hands clean of this madness. I love conservatism, and after the tumult of the last election we have a great opportunity to refurbish the movement into a winning coalition that can beat the silly old man who occupies the White House.
But if they are going to railroad our own for sharing opinions that hurt Trump’s feelings, then they are no better than the anti-free speech liberals they claim to fight.
Craig Shirley is a presidential historian, Reagan biographer and Chairman of Shirley & McVicker Public Affairs.
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