Liz Cheney, Abortion, and the 2020 Election

Some quick thoughts.

With the election coming up, I wanted to offer some quick thoughts about a development this week which will have been long forgotten by next Wednesday. In this stage of the race, the narrative moves quickly. 

Liz Cheney’s recent comments when asked about abortion while campaigning for Kamala Harris have turned many heads. The Guardian claimed that Cheney “suggested that Republican-led states had overreached in restricting abortion since the supreme court’s [sic] 2022 Dobbs decision ended it as a constitutional right.” Charlie Cooke at National Review pointed out that Cheney had co-sponsored a bill in 2021 banning abortion from the moment of conception, a fair sight more restrictive than any law on the books anywhere in America today. 

Here is what she actually said:

Can I add to this just to — because I — I think it’s such an important point.  And I think there are many of us around the country who have been pro-life but who have watched what’s going on in our states since the Dobbs decision and have watched state legislatures put in place laws that are resulting in women not getting the care they need. 

 And so, I think this — this is not an issue that we’re seeing break down across party lines —— but I think we’re seeing people come together to say what has happened to women, when women are facing situations where they can’t get the care they need — where in places like Texas, for example, the attorney general is talking about suing — is suing to get access to women’s medical records — that’s not sustainable for us as — as a country, and — and it has to change.

First, I’d like to state that I have a great deal of respect for Liz Cheney. After January 6^th, she was one of the few Republicans with the guts to hammer Donald Trump on his part in one of the most disgraceful days in American public life. Many, many of the Republicans who voted to remove Cheney from leadership, who voted not the certify the election, agreed with everything she said about Donald Trump and January 6^th and lacked the spine to be honest about it.

We hear a lot about manhood these days. One of those spineless Republicans wrote a book by that title. Well, if the Republican Party had more men in it, Donald Trump would have been convicted in the Senate after January 6^th and barred from ever holding office again. 

But her courage notwithstanding, Liz Cheney shouldn’t have made these comments. The media has overreacted, acting as though the comments represent some major change of opinion on Cheney’s part. A careful parsing would lend support to the theory that she remains staunchly pro-life but is upset by the way red states have gone about banning abortion even if she still supports banning abortion in principle. However, a skilled politician like Cheney has to know that statements which require careful parsing will inevitably be misconstrued. 

I won’t comment on the policy here, just on the politics of it. If Cheney’s goal is to persuade anti-Trump Republicans to vote Harris or at least keep them from voting for Trump, she can’t afford to give them any reason to write her off. Talk-radio hosts are already saying she “sold out to the libs” for a pile of cash. If Cheney is to successfully persuade Trump-skeptical Republicans, she needs to keep her credibility as a rock-ribbed conservative. Anything which sounds as though she’s gone over to the other team will give voters a reason to write off anything else she says. The best case she can make is this, “I remain dedicated to conservative principles, but I am willing to overlook my policy disagreements with Vice-President Harris because Donald Trump instigated an attack on the American Constitution with his baseless lies about the 2020 election. Donald Trump is not now, nor has he ever been, committed to conservative principles. Therefore, I urge conservatives not to vote for him, because he will only betray you and the country you love.”

Or something to that effect.

While We’re on the Subject

Mark Halperin told Tucker Carlson this week that if Donald Trump wins the election, “I think it will be the cause of the greatest mental health crisis in the history of the country.” He went on to talk about alcoholism and broken marriages. 

Halperin wasn’t telling Carlson’s audience not to vote for Trump; he was predicting (probably accurately) that the left will lose its collective mind in the event of a Trump victory. It’s worth pointing out that large portions of the American right had an emotional breakdown when Donald Trump lost in 2020, and many of them are still in the denial phase. The meltdown was so catastrophic for some of them it led them to storm the Capitol in order to hang Mike Pence. While inside, they ransacked the seat of the American legislature, defecated on desks, and acted like lunatics. Republicans should be ashamed of this. A sane party would hold its own politicians and voters to account, and the majority of Republicans who are rightly appalled at January 6^th wouldn’t defend Trump’s conduct. Instead, they would be on the forefront of punishing the perpetrators. 

I’ve no doubt that there will be rioting by Antifa thugs if Trump loses. But the left doesn’t have a monopoly on snowflakery or emotional support dolls. The 2016 election broke Democrats and the 2020 election broke Republicans. I’m sure most of the country agrees with me in saying that I hope to live through an election in which neither party loses its mind for a change.

Ben Connelly is a writer, long-distance runner, former engineer, and author of “Grit: A Practical Guide to Developing Physical and Mental Toughness.” He publishes short stories and essays at Hardihood Books. @benconnelly6712