By Dan Spalding
InkFreeNews

I never thought I’d feel much sympathy for Rep. Liz Cheney, but I do. I have nothing against her, but I was never a fan of her father, Dick Cheney, and her political ambitions reminded me of Hillary Clinton.

At the same time, she started to grow on me. I really thought she and Nikki Haley and Kamala Harris might be the top contenders in 2024, thereby setting the stage for a historic presidential campaign.

But all of that seemed to change in a blink of an eye recently after the representative from Wyoming joined nine other House Republicans to vote for the impeachment of Donald Trump. She blamed the violence, including the death of five people, directly on Trump.

And suddenly, Cheney’s star power wilted.

Editor’s Note: The thoughts found in this weekly columnare an expression of opinion by the author andnot necessarily the opinion of InkFreeNews.

In the continuing fallout from the insurrection and specifically Trump’s role, a gaping schism has opened up in the GOP and highlights how powerful Trump continues to be.

That became crystal clear this week when Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz took the brazen step of leading a campaign rally against Cheney in her home state.

“We are in a battle for the soul of the Republican Party, and I intend to win it,” Gaetz told a crowd of Trump supporters in Cheyenne.

Liz Cheney

Watching Gaetz attack Cheney reminded me of Ronald Reagan’s oft-repeated reminder: “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.” I know that’s a cliched fallback, but it really did matter just a few years ago. In three decades, the party has morphed from the Newt Gingrich era to the Tea Party era and then suddenly into the loving arms of Donald Trump.

The Republican party has moved to the right so quickly in recent years that it no longer feels like the Reagan era. Democrats have moved in the opposite direction as well, but this is different. This is starting to look like a period of in-fighting that we’ve not seen in our lifetime.

Just to be clear, much of the Republican Party is made up of good Americans who are not racist or crazy or revolutionaries.

But one of the most important takeaways from the insurrection is that Trump was able to unwittingly bring together numerous extremist groups with different agendas – anti-government, white supremacists and conspiracy-lovers – who all mobilized into a violent rage that came within minutes of possibly killing Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6.

Those energized extremist entities are dragging down the Republican brand. Party leadership can only do so much, but a first good step would be to censure Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia after several inflammatory past comments on a range of issues came to light. If you have not heard about her incendiary rhetoric, you can easily find it on Google.

Congressional legislation has already been introduced that would seek to censure her or demand her resignation.

If Republicans don’t take action, they are admitting that a QAnon-supporting, anti-Semitic wackadoodle who has endorsed political violence has a legitimate seat at their table.

If Republicans do nothing, they’re only inviting more trouble and driving a bigger wedge within their own ranks and across the entire country.

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STATEHOUSE UPDATE – A spokesperson for the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce tells me there will be three legislative updates this year featuring state lawmakers during the General Assembly. The first event (set for Feb. 26) and possibly all three – will be online. We’ll have more details soon.

Maybe this will be the jumpstart to live streaming all future legislative updates. That would be a great public service.

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PENSIVE SPECULATION – Will former Vice President Mike Pence follow in the steps of Mitch Daniels, the former governor who moved from politics to education? Reporter Tom LoBianco, who’s written a book about Pence, on Friday speculated the Pence could end up working as a college president at a Christian school. He made the comments on Sirius Radio in an interview with Julie Mason.

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RANDOM IDEAS – A few simple thoughts on complex issues:

• Defund Police will go down as one of the worst political slogans in modern U.S. political history. To say it backfired on Dems would be an understatement.
• The Senate is not going to convict Trump. I’d rather see both chambers put forth a censure vote and get everyone on the record where they stand about the former president’s role in the insurrection.
• Imagine if Obama had led an insurrection that killed five people. I wonder if Republicans would want to move on without consequences?

(I swear that’s the last time I’ll ever use the “Imagine if Obama did that” line.)

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Dan Spalding is the editor at InkFreeNews.com.
He covers city government and politics and always welcomes your input.
He can be reached at [email protected] or at (574) 855-7612.