Liz Cheney – Great News for the GOP; Great News for the Nation

Liz Cheney – Great News for the GOP; Great News for the Nation

-Christopher Carroll
The Cheney family has been intricately involved in much of America’s recent political history. It seems that the country has more to look forward to.

On Tuesday, republican Liz Cheney, the daughter of former House Minority Whip, former Secretary of Defense under President George H. W. Bush and former Vice-President of the United States Dick Cheney, is running for United States Senate from Wyoming. The catch? She is running to unseat long-standing republican Senator Mike Enzi.

This type of inter-party cannibalism has become surprisingly commonplace. The tea-party fervor of the past six years has resulted in incumbent republican losses from challengers on their right. This trend has been crippling in Washington D.C. Politicians, fearful of interparty challenges, have moved further to the right while republican freshman have been vociferous in their aversion to compromise. The result has been a hyper-polarization of the two parties, bringing governance in D.C to a screeching halt and making Congress one of the most hated institutions in the country.

Liz Cheney’s announcement may mark an end to these dark days. Many prominent Republicans are looking at her announcement with distaste. Former RNC chair Michael Steele fears that her campaign will open a fissure in the GOP. His disillusionment is joined by that of Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wy.), Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), who chairs the Senate Republicans 2014 Campaign, and many other prevent political actors. The republican establishment seems to be resenting and actively fighting recent republican culture.

All of this comes after Republicans, led by Sen. John McCain (R-Az.), came to an agreement with Senate democrats to avert a filibuster showdown, agreeing to confirm controversial Obama nominations in a deal that was received with much displeasure from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Suddenly, this doesn’t seem like the disciplined Republican Party of old. The unified GOP many have grown accustomed to is now fractured.
Liz Cheney’s announcement is great news for the Republican party and the nation in general. It’s not wonderful because she will bring change and progress to governance, but because the response to it has been unusually negative. As more Republicans denounce Cheney, who has said that the country doesn’t need people who compromise but those who are willing to oppose democrats “every step of the way”, and politicians of her ilk, the party will be purging itself of the dangerous extremism that has plagued it in recent memory.

Hopefully the GOP is changing. Hopefully the response to Liz Cheney’s announcement marks a new conservative trend. If the GOP does begin to reject extreme characters like Cheney, the party will regain some of it’s old credibility and strength. If the GOP does begin to reject extreme characters like Cheney, the nation will be better off.