Cancel Culture has, until now, been pretty much the exclusive signature weapon of the far-left wing of the Democratic Party and, to some extent, of the hallowed halls of the academy. It has served as a coup d’état administered to those whose conduct the left has considered to be beyond the pale. Not anymore.
Now comes the new vindictive Republican cancel culture, which condemns to oblivion any Republican who, essentially, has displeased Donald Trump, the current ringmaster of the party. Sadly, the targets of the new Republican cancel culture are invariably found among those Republicans who put the country ahead of party and who vote conscience rather than fealty.
The Wyoming Republican Party voted last weekend to refuse to recognize Rep. Liz Cheney as a Republican. That bears repeating. Liz Cheney has been banished from the Republican Party in Wyoming. She was also expelled from party leadership in Congress for condemning the January 6th insurrection, for which former President Trump was cheer-leader-in-chief. What folly!
Surprisingly, Republicans from the Equality State didn’t also formally name her a RINO (Republican In Name Only); so bizarre was their action. Liz Cheney is as true-blue a Republican as there is. Few Republicans can match her solid Republican voting record, nor, sad to say, her sense of honor. Liz Cheney is an American first and a political party member second. She is a true American hero who understands that sometimes party loyalty demands too much.
Liz Cheney and a pitifully small group of Republicans (think Representative Adam Kinzinger, Senator Mitt Romney, former Governor, John Kasich, the late Joint Chiefs Chairman and Secretary of State, Collin Powell, Governor Larry Hogan, and, indeed, others) understand that our Country and our Constitution come before party and before allegiance to a former angry and vindictive Republican president who was decisively voted out of office. But why stick with the likes of Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney, and Larry Hogan when you can embrace the likes of Paul Gosar, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Matt Gaetz.
Apparently, infrastructure is not good for the Country when a Democratic congress enacts and a Democratic President signs the enabling legislation. Trump, who in the past, changed party affiliation five times, incurred near-trillion-dollar deficits as President, established job-killing tariffs, and produced greater trade deficits during his four years as President than his immediate predecessor did during his last four years in office, quickly labeled all of the Republicans who supported the infrastructure bill enacted this week as RINO’s. Really?
Think of it. In March of 2020, Trump supported a $2Trillion infrastructure program, writing that, “This is the time to craft an infrastructure overhaul…It should be VERY BIG & BOLD, Two Trillion Dollars, and be focused solely on jobs and rebuilding the once great infrastructure of our Country!” But that was then when he sat in the oval office. Now, he races to condemn and cancel Republicans who voted for the $1Trillion infrastructure bill enacted and signed into law by President Biden last week.
Maryland’s Republican Governor, Larry Hogan, didn’t mince words. “Trump cancel culture needs to end,” he said. “This kind of purging and silencing of dissent in service to The Dear Leader is what happens in socialist dictatorships and authoritarian regimes—not in America.” Hogan was unequivocal in his criticism of Trump. “Republicans would have taken back the House and won the Senate without Trump and his losing record weighing us down. We need more – not less – of these (Republican) candidates winning in 2022… If we attack candidates who can win, we lose. It appears Trump would rather bring down the Republican Party with him than see the party succeed without him. If we let him, then we deserve the result.”
In the interest of full disclosure, Governor Hogan’s father, the late Larry Hogan, was my dear friend and business partner many years ago when his son, the current governor, was still in junior high school. The senior Hogan, like his son, always put principle before politics. The conservative congressman was banished by his own party (as he knew he would be) when, in 1974, he became the first Republican on the House Judiciary Committee to vote for all three articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon. He called me the night before that historic vote to tell me he had no choice but to vote to impeach and that it was going to end his congressional career. Only one other Republican in the entire history of Maryland’s 5th congressional district had ever won any elective office. That was for one two-year term during an Eisenhower landslide. The very conservative Republicans in Maryland’s 5th congressional district were certain to turn him out in the next primary, the senior Hogan said. And, indeed, they did. No Republican has held that congressional seat since.
Just as so many of today’s Republicans are willing to sublimate principle in the service of power, so too will the party reap what it has sown. In America, sooner or later, principle prevails…Doesn’t it?
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I’m a liberal who agrees with all your insights and comments. It’s becoming too scary
Love your columns and send it to friends
I wish we could guarantee that principle will prevail. You don’t seem convinced as well.
The internet and social media will be around much longer than you and me. Will the larger mainstream catch on that we are self destructing?
Think about how long it took the Surgeon General’s warning that cigarettes could kill. But I do think it finally convinced millions.
We have more that have given up smoking than ever before.
I’m looking for any example of how the public can change attitudes.
I wish we could guarantee that principle will prevail. You don’t seem convinced as well.
The internet and social media will be around much longer than you and me. Will the larger mainstream catch on that we are self destructing?
Think about how long it took the Surgeon General’s warning that cigarettes could kill. But I do think it finally convinced millions.
We have more that have given up smoking than ever before.
I’m looking for any example of how the public can change attitudes.
Here’s a book for ALL to read:
The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President
Edited by Bandy X. Lee, MD St.Martin’s Press 2019
This will clarify a great deal of how we got to where we are!
Here’s a book for ALL to read:
The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President
Edited by Bandy X. Lee, MD St.Martin’s Press 2019
This will clarify a great deal of how we got to where we are!
Somehow it is okay for Democrats to threaten and harass Dem. Sen. Joe Manchin of W.Va. Manchin has become the voice of reason in America .
That seems to be called fair play plus for those people who threatened Trump cabinet personnel as they ate peaceful dinners outside of office, or Sara Huckabee Sanders being denied service at a Virginia restaurant. Was she a plague or a Covid carrier? No, simply a Republican working for President Trump.
Trump is not going away and actually getting stronger now because of Biden’s policy failures.
Adding to Stuart Goldfine……
How about the elected women ….. Maxine Waters and others that encouraged people to confront and attack others with differing opinions?
Adding to Stuart Goldfine……
How about the elected women ….. Maxine Waters and others that encouraged people to confront and attack others with differing opinions?
I think that Trump will be a temporary problem. God, are you listening?
Too bad the infrastructure bill isn’t only for infrastructure. Democrats have a new meaning for what infrastructure should cover. When I think of infrastructure, I think of roads and bridges.
Too bad the infrastructure bill isn’t only for infrastructure. Democrats have a new meaning for what infrastructure should cover. When I think of infrastructure, I think of roads and bridges.
I think you need some new material. I get tired reading about the same thing every week. Donald Trump is not our president. Joe Biden is. Why aren’t you using the ton of material related to the Democrats, e.g. Biden’s cognitive inabilities, how he has screwed up Afghanastan, How he has messed up our border, how he has an incompetent Vice President, why his ratings have dropped off the side of the cliff, why he has had trouble dealing with China, Why he has trouble dealing with inflation, why he has trouble dealing with our supply deficiency, etc. etc. You haver so much material. Why don’t you use it.
I second LWY’s comments!!!!
I agree 100% with what you wrote. Our Republican friends are forgetting that Trump cut taxes,big time for the richest. That move has created the greatest distancing between workers and their bosses. The spread between poor, middle, and rich are going to cause the biggest problems in the future. I can see somebody being Republican. but I cant fathom those same people believing in Trump.
I agree 100% with what you wrote. Our Republican friends are forgetting that Trump cut taxes,big time for the richest. That move has created the greatest distancing between workers and their bosses. The spread between poor, middle, and rich are going to cause the biggest problems in the future. I can see somebody being Republican. but I cant fathom those same people believing in Trump.
Hal, keep up the great essays you’ve been writing. You can’t please everyone.
Trump is paranoid over the loss of the election, and sadly, some of his followers are following. If he is re-elected president in 2024, he will surely, near-irreparably, destroy this country.
Oh, I forgot to mention, I am a registered Democrat, but if Governor Hogan, a Republican, were to run for President in 2024, I would vote for him in a heartbeat
Oh, I forgot to mention, I am a registered Democrat, but if Governor Hogan, a Republican, were to run for President in 2024, I would vote for him in a heartbeat