Wow, the Bushes and Cheneys Have Become the "Reasonable Right
Wow, the Bushes and Cheneys Have Become the “Reasonable Right”
This does not bode well for the GOP nor for America
https://juliovincent.medium.com/wow-the-bushes-and-cheneys-have-become-the-reasonable-right-b962404e5a28
Oh, now we like Dubya? And the Cheneys? How quickly we forget the past. The media has held both families up this week as respectable old-guard traditionalists — masked and responsible — celebrating their outspoken defenses of democracy against the modern GOP crazies: Trump, Boebert, Cruz, Taylor Green, and the rest. I am not the first one to say it, by any means, but I may be the first one to say it on your screen today, my friends. I call bullshit. This is dangerous. These people are just an inch north of crazy themselves. They’re also responsible for getting us here.
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Let us not forget, though, that George Bush left the country on the verge of collapse in 2009. The economy was in tatters. No one went to jail. The financial crisis was not just a problem on paper. People’s retirement accounts were nearly wiped out. Families lost their homes, their livelihoods. There was great suffering in this country. This was after he spent his presidency lying to the American people, waging an illegitimate war in the name of 9/11, draining the country’s coffers, and demonizing gays and lesbians. Most of which was architected by Dr. Evil himself, Dick Cheney.
snip//
Same for Liz. Liz Cheney, the third-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, who is about to be ousted from her leadership role in the party, has consistently held that Trump crossed a line by inciting the Capitol Riot, and by trumpeting The Big Lie. I agree. That line is dark and clear, and crossing it is egregious. What we all saw, with our own eyes, on video on January 6, was a disgusting spectacle. But the Cheneys have crossed many a line in the last 20 years in this country. They moved the line.
Not only was Dick architecting and doctoring (see above), but Liz, herself, threw her own sister under the bus during the marriage equality debates, excusing her lack of support for her sister’s marriage as simply a “disagreement” — as if policy doesn’t have real-world effects on people’s lives. In 2009, she was such a strong advocate for torture, that it is one reason she became a rising star in the party. She may be the more approachable Cheney, but she is a Cheney nonetheless.
I am sure Mitt is happy to have company on the Reasonable Right as the Bushes and the Cheneys try to hold the center and prevent the party from freefall. (Aren’t we kind of there already?) But let’s not — in conversation, in the media, online, and elsewhere — hold these people up as heroes. They may be speaking out now to save their party, but if we excuse them their own serious offenses, we’ll be looking at a post-pandemic political field where Democrats and Republicans are suddenly on the same moral plane. The Bushes and the Cheneys watered the soil in which Donald Trump and his new brand of extremism have grown. We may forgive, but we ought not forget.
= new reply since forum marked as read
I do believe in the historical tenets of smart strategy--whether in a military or political context has included PICKING your opponents. In this case, I'd prefer my political opposition to be a sane, NON-insurrectionist/Seditionist opponent bent on destroying democracy and the country at large.
Does anyone REALLY think FDR (or Churchill) WANTED to work with Joseph Stalin? Really?
Picking the less destructive option for an ally--however transitory and temporary-- is not tantamount to forgetting or creating an alternative reality. At least if we are SMART. 
I guess my assumption that Dems know and benefit from more knowledge of history is misplaced.
