Will Liz Cheney be the future of the GOP post-Trump?

Tiana Lowe, a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner, thinks so.

In a recent piece for The Washington Examiner, Tiana Lowe made the case for Cheney taking control of Republican House leadership. She criticized Republican member of congress’ efforts to overturn states’ certified election results in the last few months. Never mind the fact that there were tons of irregularities and strong allegations of vote fraud during the 2020 election cycle. 

She also criticized Missouri Senator Josh Hawley for ”smugly pumping his fist in salute of a mob that went on to storm the Capitol and murder a police officer kept the spotlight shining on his role in the pro-Trump challenge.” Again, this is another Conservatism Inc. style smear against an elected official who’s actually trying to stir the pot. 

However, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy is not innocent in her view as well. She made the case for dumping for McCarthy below: 

“Make no mistake: Anyone who promulgated President Trump’s lie that the election was stolen from him is unfit to serve as the House minority leader. The experiment of Trumpism proved a political failure, with the Republican Party losing its control of the White House and both chambers of Congress while achieving few legislative gains. If the GOP wants to score a comeback, its divorce from Trumpism must mean much more than a mere divorce from Trump. McCarthy must go, at a minimum, from House leadership.”

Instead, Lowe believes that Republicans “have an obvious candidate to replace him [McCarthy] in Liz Cheney.”

Let’s be honest, Republicans took beatings over the last few years due to the fact that they opted to implement the Chamber of Commerce’s “Business First” agenda of passing major tax cuts for corporations, instead of implementing immigration restriction or pushing forward infrastructure investment to revitalize the Midwest and shore up electoral support in that region. Unfortunately, Trump fell under the influence of then-House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Republicans lost decisively in the House during the 2018 elections, thus hamstringing Trump’s immigraiton populist agenda.

In 2020, bad luck struck after the GOP totally dropped the ball on the issue of voter fraud and allowed for Trump to be sunk during the General Election while also losing the Senate after Republicans laid eggs in two key races in Georgia. However, establishment conservatives like Lowe don’t care for such contextual analysis and would rather proceed with promoting people like Cheney. Lowe added, “Despite her foreign policy hawkishness resulting in some intraparty quibbles, Cheney navigated the Trump era without either debasing herself with the stench of unquestioning Trumpism or alienating herself politically a la Mitt Romney. Despite her short tenure in Congress, Cheney has already proved that her political instincts are those the party needs.”

Cheney’s foreign policy hawkishness alone should bar her from consideration of being a future leader for the GOP. For example, Liz Cheney was instrumental in blocking the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan.

She also pushed the Russia bounty narrative in Afghanistan that the political establishment used to justify keeping troops in Afghanistan. Whatever flaws McCarthy may have, replacing him with Cheney makes zero sense for conservatives looking for a more realist foreign policy. Realism means restraint and a general penchant towards non-interventionism.

Lowe also praised Cheney for leading the “party’s rejection of the racist Rep. Steve King,” whose words were taken out of context in an interview with the New York Times. King was a fantastic immigration patriot and a strong bulwark against political correctness during his time in the House. His presence will be missed.

However, for pundits like Lowe, King is a vile man and should be replaced with elected officials in the mold of Liz Cheney. Frankly, her take is nonsense and should be ignored by anyone with a strong sense of political awareness. If the GOP wants to reform it must abandon the Liz Cheneys and instead embrace elected officials such as Matt Gaetz, who are real nationalists. From there, the GOP can realign its priorities with Middle America.