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A Growing Coalition of Americans
Dick and Liz Cheney's endorsement of Kamala Harris is a welcome sign that more and more Americans are recognizing what's at stake in this election
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There’s something happening in America. Yes, the polls show a tight race, far too tight for comfort. It remains disconcerting to realize there are many tens of millions of Americans who witnessed the violent Jan. 6 insurrection and have since heard the GOP nominee and convicted felon plot to be a dictator on day one, threaten to terminate the Constitution, tell Christian supporters that this will be the last election requiring their vote, degrade women who make up half of the voting public—and still respond with an enthusiastic commitment to returning him to power.
But in a remarkable moment for our country, we are witnessing an emerging coalition of Americans—including a growing number of Republicans—who recognize the danger that Donald Trump represents and are not just voicing their criticism but endorsing the Democratic nominee. In what world would I have expected to praise former Vice President Dick Cheney and his decision to put country over party and publicly support a progressive Democrat?
“In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” Dick Cheney said in a statement Friday. “He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He can never be trusted with power again.”
Cheney then added, “As citizens, we each have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution. That is why I will be casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.”
This followed the decision of his daughter, former Rep. Liz Cheney, who also endorsed Harris last week. (In case you missed it, over 200 other prominent Republicans have done so in the last two weeks.)
“As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this, and because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris,” she said last Wednesday, adding, “I don’t believe that we have the luxury of writing in candidates’ names, particularly in swing states.”
Add to this the particularly strong words of Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a Republican, at the Democratic National Convention several weeks ago: “These days our party acts more like a cult, a cult worshiping a felonious thug…Let me be clear to my Republican friends at home,” Duncan said, staring straight into the television camera. “If you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024, you’re not a Democrat, you’re a patriot.”
From Kamala Harris’ views on abortion and women’s reproductive rights to her overall rejection of a conservative Supreme Court supermajority’s activist agenda—to name just two—it’s obvious that the Cheneys and many other Republicans possess vastly different policy positions involving the role of government and the range of democratic freedoms. But in this extraordinary moment, they understand that the survival of democracy, the Constitution and the rule of law requires them to stand up against the threat that is Trump.
Inevitably and understandably, some Democratic critics of Dick Cheney say there’s no room for someone like him in this overwhelmingly Democratic coalition. But I think they’re sorely missing the point.
You don’t have to like him. You don’t have to agree with him. You don’t have to abandon your belief that he is a war criminal who trashed the Geneva Convention, backed torture and lied to justify the murderous war in Iraq. What we all should do is think pragmatically about how Democrats can leverage a platform like his to expand the coalition.
This is a time to welcome any and all Americans, especially influential ones, no matter how strange or controversial bedfellows they may be, to ensure that Trump never sets foot in our White House again. As VP Harris told reporters over the weekend in Pittsburgh, “It’s time to turn the page on the divisiveness. It’s time to bring our country together, chart a new way forward.”
While it remains to be seen how many Republicans or Republican-leaning Independents can be swayed, count me among those who particularly appreciate Liz Cheney’s criticism of many Republicans who say they won’t vote for Trump, but are refusing thus far to support Harris. “That’s not enough,” she told This Week co-anchor Jonathan Karl yesterday, describing the possible election of Trump as an “unrecoverable catastrophe.” She insisted that “we have to do everything possible to ensure that he's not reelected.”
Over these next two months, I cannot predict who else will join this historic coalition. We do know that former President George W. Bush is not one of them. His office told NBC News on Saturday that he would not be making any endorsement, adding weakly, “President Bush retired from presidential politics years ago."
This is no time for neutrality, indifference or business as usual in politics. George Bush dishonors the office by refusing to speak out and stand up for the one candidate who is committed to the peaceful transfer of power and the survival of democracy. History will not forget the names of all those who are choosing to aid and abet a campaign that can lead to “unrecoverable catastrophe” and who clearly understand that there are higher purposes in American politics than partisanship.
Perhaps a successful performance by Harris in Tuesday night’s debate that vividly exposes the danger of electing Trump will move other Republicans to speak up. But many everyday Americans—not absorbed by politics—will miss this showdown.
It remains the duty of each of us to ask anyone and everyone that we meet between now and Nov. 5 who they plan to vote for. You just might find that you can sway the decision of someone who, remarkably, is just gaining awareness of who’s running and what kind of future each candidate is promising.
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