This Liz Cheney / Kamala Harris Campaign Stop Broke My Brain
Tim Walz to speak at muslim event that says Harris is "enabling atrocities"
In 2000, my high school science teacher volunteered to count hanging chads down the road in Palm Beach County so we could all find out George W. Bush was president.
The next year I went to college and 9/11 happened before I knew where all my classes were.
Fast forward three years, two wars and one Janet Jackson nipple shield later… I am running a staff at The Daily Orange student newspaper coordinating coverage for an election everyone is VERY sure John Kerry will win.
The Bush years shaped my understanding of politics and specifically the liberal backlash against a conservative president. Pearl Jam was mad! Jon Stewart became an icon! An unrelenting torrent of Michael Moore documentaries!
To be a Democrat was to believe George W. Bush and his puppet master Dick Cheney were not just a failed administration, they were insidious war criminals.
So last night, when Vice President and Democratic nominee for president Kamala Harris campaigned with Liz Cheney I couldn’t help but feel like Roddy Piper in They Live: looking at something presented as normal and seeing something truly bizarre.
The weirdest part?
It felt like it fit.
The Cheneys (Dick was thanked specifically by Kamala) are comfortable parts of the Democratic Party coalition now.
Hatred of Donald Trump has brought together the engine of the War on Terror and the party that defined themselves by opposing it.
Here are the lines from last night that truly broke me…
Liz Cheney: In that election 20 years ago when we were campaigning in Wisconsin and across the nation. We were campaigning as compassionate conservatives…
The term “compassionate conservative” was coined by the Bush team in 2000 to combat John McCain more moderate push for the party. But wait, that just leads us to this moment.
Liz Cheney: “I have never voted for a Democract but this year I am proudly casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris. (Crowd: Thank You Liz!) But mostly, we’re not going back…”
We are very specifically, not going back to 2016 through 2020. Any of the eight years before 2016 are totally cool.
Kamala Harris: “It is my profound honor to have your support. And I also want to thank your father Vice President Dick Cheney for his support and what he has done to serve our country.”
The Democratic nominee for president is talking about Dick Cheney’s record of service! The record of service for which made him one of the most reviled figures of his era. He left office with a 31% approval rating! 20% of Republicans didn’t like him!
Dick Cheney might be January 6th biggest winner.
Kamala Harris: “And let me be clear, democracy and freedom are not only at stake here at home, they are also at stake around the world. As President of the United States, I will strengthen, not abdicate, America's global leadership.”
This exact sentence coming out the mouth of George W. Bush with a Cheney clapping behind him would have been enough for a Rolling Stone cover story that had a headline like “Death on the Horizon.”
Then again, it is a very 2024 vibe to take a 20-year-old idea and reboot it with a female cast.
Walz to speak at muslim event amid unrest
The invitation says his ticket is “enabling atrocities in Gaza.”
Tell me you’re being punished for a bad debate without telling me you’re being punished for a bad debate.
In today’s episode of Px3 we speak to Claire Meynial who interviewed people on the ground in Dearborn, Michigan. From what she was told, Harris has lost that vote.
Sean
Is there a case for immediate fact checking in the name of public safety? Didn’t Governor DeWine have to send state police to Springfield after Trump’s comments?
FACT CHECK: DeWine sent police to deal with bomb threats that were being called in to Springfield schools. He noted in his statement on the matter that those threats were hoaxes being called in from overseas to stir chaos but he wanted to provide peace of mind to parents.
So were they because someone took what Trump said seriously and menaced the school? No.
But let’s say they did! Would a more thorough fact checking from David Muir have made things safer? I think not.
I have still not been able to wrap my head around the Cheney Harris combination. It seems too much like an alternate universe. I can’t think of any policies Harris and elder Cheney would agree on. It wasn’t that long ago that an endorsement like that would have cost her most democratic support. I worry that this is continued movement of politics towards personality cliques and vibes and away from any real discussion of policy. Ok, maybe it has always been that way. It’s just that now I can’t figure out what ideology binds either party together.
It’s amazing that the Dem’s have become the giant POS’s they railed against for years.