“Liz Cheney is a true patriot.”

“Damn, Liz Cheney is such a badass.”

“Liz Cheney is not afraid of the whining man-baby Mungo Mussolini and his threats to throw her in jail.”

These are but a few of hundreds of posts you’ll see littered across Bluesky. Declarations in support of the former Representative of Wyoming and former chair of the House Republican Conference.

Liz Cheney’s support isn’t limited to random, faceless accounts either. She’s regularly on the receiving end of positive news coverage. You’ll recall her many appearances across Kamala Harris’ failed presidential campaign. Even Robert Reich, the former Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, has called for Liz Cheney to receive a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Yet for all the praise heaped on Dick Cheney’s daughter for being “one of the good ones”, there lurks a darker story. The tale of someone who only saw fit to turn on Donald Trump when it was politically advantageous, perhaps in an effort to hide all the work she did to enable him…

Trump’s Greatest Enabler

“If you wouldn’t hire somebody to babysit your kids, then you shouldn’t make that guy [Donald Trump] the president of the United States.”

Liz Cheney, 2024, campaigning with Kamala Harris

“Take a breath, [Rand Paul]. I vote with [Donald Trump] 97% of the time.”

Liz Cheney, 2019, defending her support of Donald Trump’s policies

The narrative presented to us is that Liz Cheney is a Republican who has always stood strong against Trump. One of the few anti-Trump Republicans brave enough to put “country before party”. A moderate who has some differing views, sure, but more than makes up for it by denouncing the direction her party has taken.

Her voting record shows the actual truth:

From attempting to repeal the Affordable Care Act, to voting for Trump’s border wall funding. She voted against a resolution condemning Trump’s ban of transgender people serving in the military, and refused to condemn Trump’s racist comments against “the Squad”.

She voted to repeal Dodd-Frank regulations put in place after the Great Recession, refused to restore parts of the Voting Rights Act, opposed sending disaster aid to the earthquake-stricken Puerto Rico, and even voted against impeaching Trump during his first impeachment trial.

FiveThirtyEight lists Liz Cheney’s “Trump Score” (that is to say, how often she voted with Trump’s position) at 92.9%.

92.9%.

During her time in congress, she practically gave Trump everything he wanted.

But it doesn’t just stop at policy votes. During Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing, she blasted Senate Democrats as “absolutely abohrrent” for daring to question the alleged sexual assaulter (not the first time she’s thrown women under the bus), refused to condemn Trump’s “jokes” about genocide against Native Americans (not the first time she’s shown contempt for Native Americans), and perhaps worst of all, brutally demonized immigrants while serving as the House Republican Conference Chair.

Reading through all of this honestly felt torturous, which Cheney would probably be delighted to hear.

And let’s be honest. Liz Cheney is a human being with a brain (allegedly). She knew what she was doing during her time in power. No one used “enhanced interrogation” to get these comments and votes out of her.

This was all of her own volition, and yet now we're supposed to believe she’s a changed woman.

But with all the closet skeletons on full display, why the support from the liberal wing? Why are so many Democrats obsessed with idolizing someone arguably as bad as Trump himself, even to the detriment of the party’s electoral chances?

Savior Complex

“You have pro-life women all across this country who have been watching what’s happened in places like Texas and places like North Carolina, where since Roe was overturned, you had laws put in place at the state level that are preventing women from getting life-saving care”

Liz Cheney, 2024, on State of the Union

“I have always been strongly pro-life. Today’s ruling by the Supreme Court returns power to the states and the people of the states to address the issue of abortion under state law.”

Liz Cheney, 2022, praising the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Roe v. Wade

“I think I could turn her on abortion.”

Those eight words sum up the mindset of the Resist movement. The Bluesky post which prompted me to write this article. The sheer delusion of someone who thinks they could convince someone like Cheney to back down from her draconian positions, to turn her to the side of good in the ultimate victory against MAGA.

Cheney is pro-torture, anti-abortion. Pro-war, anti-immigration. Pro-gun, anti-gun safety. A toxic individual who should be kept as far away from any position of influence as is physically possible.

And yet a not-insignificant part of the Democratic party want her to stick around. They want to praise her as she fights the good fight against the man she backed without question. They want to hold her up on a pedestal and wave her around, all while bellowing “See? We got one of the monsters on our side! Isn’t that amazing?”

But the idea that Liz Cheney will forever be a darling of the Democrat party is a foolish one.

Liz Cheney often claims she wants to “restore” the Republican Party to what it once was. Considering the party’s history of waging war, brutalizing minorities, and stealing money from the working class, it is unclear what’s she looking to bring back. Regardless, Cheney is perfectly welcome to pursue her delusions.

Liberals, however, need to stop hitching themselves to Republican fantasies.

Too much time, money, and effort is being poured into Conservative faces and organizations. Individuals and PACs who publicly criticize Trump, while privately profiting off the generosity of liberals. Cheney certainly isn’t alone in pursuing this lucrative business, but she’s one of the more recognizable faces.

This needs to end.

The moment Trump is gone, and a more “presentable” Republican ascends to power, it is my belief that Cheney and her ilk will turn their growing machines against their center-left backers, shooting down the Resistance with the guns they so willingly provided.

While we’ll never see a Kamala Harris presidency, there was a lot of discussion about Cheney receiving a cabinet position. Harris had promised to appoint a Republican to her cabinet, and it’s very likely that Cheney’s prominence on the campaign trail was in preperation to place her in Harris’ government.

The fact we avoided such a possibility is one of the few positives to come out of these election results. Because whle we are purely in the realm of speculation, based on Cheney’s past comments, I can see her using her time in government to lay the groundwork for a political comeback.

Because when Liz Cheney talks about restoring the Republican party, it’s my opinion that she doesn’t mean transforming it into a machine for the good of democracy. She doesn’t care about the never-ending shift rightward. She doesn’t care about the draconian policies that have killed innocent Americans.

She just wants to be the one at the wheel.

Draw the Line

"I ask you to stand in truth, to reject the depraved cruelty of Donald Trump. And I ask you instead to help us elect Kamala Harris for president.”

Liz Cheney, 2024, campaigning with Kamala Harris

“Kamala Harris is a radical liberal and supports dangerous policies that would devastate millions of Americans.”

Liz Cheney, 2020, on America’s Newsroom

Imagine a world where MAGA is gone.

Donald Trump is out of power. JD Vance rides off into the sunset to play an MtG tournament. Trump’s most ardent supporters are thrown from the halls of Congress, willingly or otherwise. The Grand Old Party is restored to its former glory.

What happens next?

The exact same thing.

Liz Cheney isn’t going to magically transition from war-hungry conservative to peace-loving liberal. We’re not going to see the dawn of an era of bipartisanship, with Democrats and Republicans coming together in a Sorkin-esque picture of beauty to transform America.

Even when Trump is long gone, Republicans will still continue to implement the policies he’s credited for. Cheney proved that with her voting record, and she’s done nothing to suggest it would look any different if she ever made a return to Congress.

The harsh truth is that there is no such thing as a MAGA Republican. There are no such things as RINOs.

Look at Joe Walsh, who ran against Trump in the 2020 Republican primary, but threatened to “grab a musket” if Trump lost back in 2016.

Look at Adam Kinzinger, ardent Trump critic and the only other Republican on the January 6th committee. FiveThirtyEight gave him a Trump score of 90%.

Some Republicans are noisier than others, but make no mistake that they are all the same. All of them willing to ruin the lives of minorities and strip Americans of their rights. Some of them are just a little more “presidential” about it.

For some liberals, opposing Trump is the threshold of heroics. The sign of a great leader who, aside from a few ‘disagreements about the issues’, can do no wrong. In actuality, opposing Trump shouldn’t even be the bare minimum. Liberals need to put an end to deifying the enemy, and amplify the voices of people who have fought for them every step of the way.

Draw the line now, before it’s too late.

Robert Reich said that Liz Cheney deserves a Presidential Medal of Freedom. I think she deserves to be thrown to the wolves she loves so much.